Meet the Indian women who toppled the boys only science club by setting up their own

Dressed in a simple cotton sari and black framed glasses, 91 year old Dr Sudha Padhye cuts an unassuming figure. But as she begins talking about her views on women pursuing careers in STEM, the facade of the polite grandmother melts away and the steely eyed scientist emerges. “Why are women afraid of ? Their mindset and what they’ve been led to believe is that they won’t understand it.

But I don’t buy all that,” she says dismissively. As a member of what might be called the first cohort of professional in India, Dr Padhye has earned the right to have strong opinions. In a world designed for and dominated by men, she struggled to be taken seriously and found that work could be lonely at times.

As one of not more than three in every classroom, or as a professional in workspaces that did not even have ladies’ washrooms, her experiences mirror those of many who dare to step outside of the confines outlined for them by India’s heteropatriarchy. Spurred by the challenges she faced, Dr Padhye dedicated her life to clearing out these roadblocks for other women in science as a founding member of the ’ Association, a professional organisation that has grown to over 2,000 individuals and 11 branches across India in the 50 years since its inception.

What do women get from being a part of such an institute? When it was founded by Dr Padhye and 11 others in 1973, they had a simple goal: to spread to the masses. But over the years, its leadership realised that there’s more to the task than providing access to a computer centre or a library. They needed to look after their members’ social and emotional needs too.

Today, their headquarters in Vashi, Navi , is a bustling centre for education and community, filled with women and children who participate in the activities conducted by representatives like the Triennial International Conference (the 2023 programme included lectures on genome editing, vaccine development and space technology), the Science Nurture programme to teach underprivileged children how to conduct experiments in a , a diploma programme in early childhood education, and nature walks in the Learning Garden.

For the many women for whom life is an impossible balancing act between home and work, the Indian Women Scientists’ Association’s daycare and healthcare centre, children’s nursery and 160 bed working women’s is an ecosystem unto itself. “The organisation is a second home for us,” says Dr Rita Mukhopadhyaya, the 64 year old former head of the gene technology section at BARC and immediate past president of the Indian Women Scientists’ Association.

“We feel so comfortable in our skin when we are here.” The members don’t necessarily have a lot in common apart from the association itself. There are four decades between 39 year old Dr Sweedle Cerejo Shivkar and 81 year old computer scientist Dr Sunita Mahajan, and the gap between their professional work is just as wide.

But what all the members are united by is their reverence for the wonders of science. “It gives logic to your life. By going deeper into simple phenomena, life can be explained and lived beautifully. It ensures we take nothing for granted,” Dr Sunita Mahajan intones. The structure of the scientific method—objectively establishing facts through and experimentation—shapes how they approach every aspect of their lives, from motherhood to relationships and even cooking.

“I don’t accept hocus pocus easily,” smirks Dr Bakhtaver Mahajan, a 76 year old biochemical geneticist and chairperson of the board of trustees at the Indian Women Scientists’ Association. A women’s association must inadvertently contend with two major challenges: the opinions of men and the idealised roles expects women to play.

“My workplace did not recognise the Indian Women Scientists’ Association’s value,” attests Dr Mukhopadhyaya. “People would say, ‘Isn’t it that woman woman place in Vashi where you all get together to ?’” It turns out certain stereotypes are hard to shake, but the members found that the best defence was to let their work speak for itself.

“When those same people were invited to our events, their eyes would pop out at the calibre of our work,” she adds with a smile. While women electing to take up professions no longer raise eyebrows like they once did, Dr Mukhopadhyaya believes that the Indian Women Scientists’ Association’s main responsibility is to the many educated but underprivileged women who might not be aware that they have options apart from and family.

“Science empowers, but society does not walk hand in hand,” she says with a sigh. Beyond its practical advantages, the organisation’s singularity lies in its ability to offer its members that elusive empowerment that comes from across generations, genuine friendship and mutual respect. Women from all walks of life are welcome to sate their curiosity about science, whether or not they hold a degree in the subject.

In conversations for this story, so many of the terms that Dr Bakhtaver Mahajan used were tender—“She was like a mother figure to me,” “We talked seriously over cups of tea,” “We hold the hands of our ,” and “I shed many years when I work with students”—yet represent great power.

And each of the five members we interviewed, commonly and repeatedly insisted on sharing credit with several other women who deserved to be recognised as much as them—a rarity in the cut throat world of . “I’ve learned patience, humility and perseverance from senior members,” says the soft spoken Dr Cerejo Shivkar.

“It has made me a better person.” India’s have proven time and again that femininity isn’t at odds with scientific excellence, and it certainly isn’t frivolous. Whether it is the team leading ground breaking space missions at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) or the Indian Women Scientists’ Association’s pioneering cancer researchers, physicists and computer scientists, behind the colourful saris, warm smiles and camaraderie are women of great tenacity and .

The institution proves that these skills can have immense value both inside and outside the laboratory helmed by Dr Padhye, its stern custodian. “Use your brains. Don’t waste time with administrative tasks. Apply yourself to projects that reach society,” Dr Padhye chides members like they are .

With all they’ve accomplished together and the trail they’ve blazed for others to follow, their bonds might as well run deeper than shared DNA..