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Gender Dimensions in Popular Science Writing in India


Affiliations
1 Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (NIScPR), New Delhi 110 012, India
2 Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre, DRDO, New Delhi 110 054, India
 

Studies on gender disparity in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) are gathering considerable attention across the globe. Almost in every field of STEM a male predominance can be noticed. Gender analysis in popular science writing has not been studied so far. The present study was carried out to analyse the gender dimension in popular science writing in India using Science Reporter, India’s leading popular science magazine. All the issues of the monthly magazine published between 2010 and 2020 were analysed. The study supports the hypothesis that gender disparity is evident even in popular science writing. The number of articles contributed by women is considerably lower than men. Women tend to show more interest in collaboration in popular science writing

Keywords

Gender gap, popular science, science communication, Science Reporter.
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  • Gender Dimensions in Popular Science Writing in India

Abstract Views: 314  |  PDF Views: 128

Authors

Biju Dharmapalan
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (NIScPR), New Delhi 110 012, India
G. Mahesh
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (NIScPR), New Delhi 110 012, India
Phuldeep Kumar
Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre, DRDO, New Delhi 110 054, India

Abstract


Studies on gender disparity in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) are gathering considerable attention across the globe. Almost in every field of STEM a male predominance can be noticed. Gender analysis in popular science writing has not been studied so far. The present study was carried out to analyse the gender dimension in popular science writing in India using Science Reporter, India’s leading popular science magazine. All the issues of the monthly magazine published between 2010 and 2020 were analysed. The study supports the hypothesis that gender disparity is evident even in popular science writing. The number of articles contributed by women is considerably lower than men. Women tend to show more interest in collaboration in popular science writing

Keywords


Gender gap, popular science, science communication, Science Reporter.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv121%2Fi10%2F1302-1306