Educational Endeavours and Unheeded Tales: Mapping Trajectories of Dalit Women in a University

Abstract

This article analyses the nature of the relationship between scientific research, gender, and caste questions. It aims to present the lived experiences of Dalit women scholars in science from a sociological perspective. Masculinist, self-fashioned gendered ideologies have dominated the scientific practice of natural sciences in general. The participation of Indian women in scientific research is a very recent phenomenon. Women students from marginalised communities are almost invisible in so-called egalitarian educational institutions. They are deprived of academic resources and opportunities and are subjected to constructive discrimination based on their intersectional identity. This study attempts to unfold the lived experiences of Dalit women scholars, particularly in the scientific laboratories, through a feminist perspective. The study is based on Dalit women scholars from a central university in South India. In-depth interviews have been employed as tool of data collection and observed through the lens of feminist perspective. The study found that women scholars from marginalised sections were meagrely represented in science research. The unique experiences of Dalit women scholars have been made visible, which entail discriminatory attitudes and exclusionary practices leading to a struggling academic journey. Interestingly, women scholars have their agency in dealing with the challenges encountered.