For every eight to 14 men at IIT, NIT and other top state-run engineering institutes in India, there’s just one woman who makes the cut. This low ratio of male to female (MFs) is now the subject of a study being conducted across Indian and American institutions.Titled, ‘Women in Engineering:A Comparative Study of Barriers Across Nations’, the 2013 study, done by Aspiring Minds, a venture of IIT and MIT alumni involved in human capital assessment, compares the low numbers of Indian women in engineering colleges to female engineering students from MIT, Stanford and Berkeley in the US, where the numbers are significantly higher — about one woman to 1.4 to four men.The study compares the applicant-to-admit ratios in MIT and the IITs. At the application stage, the male to female ratios were quite similar — one woman for every 2.27 male for MIT and at IITs, over two men for every female applicant. The selection rate for men across the two countries was also similar; 7.2% for MIT (just over seven out of every 100 male applicants) and 6.4% for IIT.However, the selection rate for women differed drastically. At MIT, just over 15 women for every 100 applicants were selected (15.5%) but at the IITs, it was just 1.9% — less than two women out of every 100 that had applied. As a result, the MFR at IITs range from 14:1 to 10:1, and at the next batch of top-tier institutions, like NITs and other top state run colleges, it is 8:1.According to the study, the US has taken several measures to improve female participation in science, technology, math and engineering higher education programmes. Over the last 40 years, the percentage of engineering degrees has jumped from less than 1% in the 1970s to 19% now.The Indian government and IITs too have taken some steps to encourage more women to join the stream by introducing reduced fees and grace points in entrance exams. While the number of women taking the IIT entrance exam has grown significantly (from 29,291 in 2005 to approximately 1.5 lakh in 2012), the clearing rate remains low, vacillating between 1.07% and 1.90%.Is this a reflection that fewer high quality female candidates aspire to gain admission into India’s top-tiered engineering colleges? To find the answer, the study surveyed 14,000 engineers and graduates from across India about their stream choice in Class XI and their Class X percentage. The study shows that two-thirds of the top 1% sample in the non-medical science stream, a proxy for engineering aspiration, was women. Despite such a high proportion of high quality female candidates, the gender ratio in top engineering colleges remains highly skewed. One of the main reasons for this, says the study, is Indian institutes’ over-dependence on test scores in student selection. While MIT takes in about three-quarters of students from the highest test score bin, it opts to reject 85% applicants in this top range, instead offering admission to students who have other strengths. The IITs do not consider any candidate who is not in the top 5% of the Joint Entrance Exam. This is despite the fact that universally, it is accepted that the standardized test format is not suited to women. It is this realization that had made colleges in US opt for a more broad-based selection process.The study also examines other pre-college barriers that skew the gender ratio in engineering, like inadequate academic preparation. In 2010, an informal survey conducted across three of India’s well known engineering entrance coaching institutes in six cities across India including Jaipur, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Tirupathi, showed that women comprised just 17-24% of the students being coached. Female IIT students quoted in the India-US comparative study had undergone coaching to clear the JEE, and many spoke of friends who were not allowed to attend coaching and thus unable to clear. The other pre-college barrier identified was self perception of ability — women with the same mathematical ability as men tend to assess themselves lower.Interestingly, once they make it to these colleges, Indian female engineering students fare much better than their American counterparts. In the US, there is a steady drop-out of women — of the 30% female students enrolled in engineering programs, only 18.5% received degrees. In India, the dropout rate is less than 5% of those enrolled, for both men and women. Isolation caused by the alleged disrespect shown to female students on campus is among the main reasons for women dropping out in the US. However, female students in India reported no in-college barriers. In fact, most of these women displayed greater confidence that men.