Frontlist | IIT Madras Launches ‘Women Leading IITM’ Program

Frontlist | IIT Madras Launches ‘Women Leading IITM’ Program
on Mar 08, 2021

Indian Institute of Technology Madras has launched the ‘Women Leading IITM’ (WLI) program to boost women leadership in science and technology. The Institute has already made considerable progress on improving the number of women students, faculty, staff and creating opportunities for success. This program will help to build on the progress achieved so far and accelerate further progress. The program will make grants each year to accelerate women technologists’ careers as well as provide a supportive environment for women to thrive at IIT Madras. The inaugural grants are set to be issued on 8th March 2021 to mark the International Women’s Day celebrations at IIT Madras The Institute is planning to raise the $2 million endowment by the end of 2021, which will provide annual grants to support programs taken by women students, faculty and researchers. In the first year alone, the Endowment Fund aims to grant Rs. 70 lakhs for various initiatives. This sum will be raised through Alumni and CSR grants. Corporate and Alumni looking to contribute to this initiative can do so through – https://joyofgiving.alumni.iitm.ac.in/endowments/other/women-leading-iitm-endowment Highlighting the unique aspects of this program, Prof. Ligy Philip, Dean (Planning), IIT Madras, said, “The ‘Women Leading IITM’ is a well-thought-out initiative by IIT Madras, with support from IITM Foundation, to nurture, develop and support women talent at IITM. This program will definitely help the women talent of IIT Madras to excel in their fields and come out as S&T leaders.” The goals of ‘Women Leading IITM’ program will include: Increasing the percentage of women faculty in Assistant Professorships to 20% from the current 15% Generating 30% of all faculty applications from Women candidates Grantees expected to graduate to leadership roles within IITM Next-generation ambassadors for enabling a gender-balanced IITM Establish an award for Women Faculty in Leadership (Institute already has awards for staff in leadership and given the good presence of women in staff, many have been getting it over the years) Elaborating on the vision behind the ‘Women Leading IITM’ (WLI) initiative, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said, “IIT Madras has made good progress in the last several years in increasing the percentage of women in the student population, from the UG level all the way up to the doctoral programme. The participation of women in the non-teaching staff is also very good, and we are making every effort to close the gap in the case of faculty. The WLI programme will be a powerful catalyst to enable us to reduce the hurdles faced by women students, faculty and staff at IIT Madras to achieve their full potential.” Read More: This new children’s book celebrates India’s female rule-breakers and their untold stories Source: India Education Diary