Activities

The WISC webpage will be updated periodically to provide access to information pertaining to the committee’s activities and other related information regarding fellowships and other kinds of support that eligible students can access.

1. Organize invited talks across all departments on a regular basis where successful women faculty from other institutes will be invited to talk about their research as well as their journey as women. The discussion of their science and, importantly, their journeys is aimed to not only inspire women students and researchers, but will also help with sensitizing the male colleagues to issues and concerns that women & gender minorities face at workplace.

2. Facilitate special fellowships for women PhD students and young mother faculty.

   • Support for women PhD students: This is aimed to assist women students who had to go on a temporary break, e.g. for maternity leave or child care leave etc. The financial assistance will be from 6 months (to a maximum period of a year, as needed) post their stipulated PhD period.

   • Support for young mother faculty for facilitating peer support and mentorship and recommending institutional financial support for their research work because they lose out on time to apply for grants and network in conferences etc. Further, interfacing with Dean Faculty to make sure that the policy rules on career advancement for them are made explicit.

3. Aim to facilitate subsidized day care for women and gender minority PhD, postdocs and faculty fellows, for a stipulated period of time based on their circumstances, in consultation with the daycare committee.

4. Facilitating early career women fellows’ and women faculty’s scientific interaction by hosting their talks annually around International Women’s Day.

5. Initiating an IISER women students’ forum to encourage women to meet on a regular basis to discuss various aspects of IISER life. This will not only provide a much-needed forum to discuss their concerns in a safe space but will also enable the committee to bring attention to collective concerns that require formal intervention and support from the IISER administration.

6.  Bringing together all women in campus for a biannual gathering to facilitate interactions around an informal setting. This will bring to the fore collective concerns faced by women on campus and enable discussions regarding resolving them using appropriate official channels.

7. Liaison with the Internal Committee to organize talks on gender sensitization and gender sensitivity training.

8. Facilitate the conducting of gender audit on regular basis.