The study offers empirical evidence of gender inequities in the academic hierarchy as an import
ant aspect of the social organisation of Indian science. While there are no statistically significant
differences in terms of writing books, articles and presenting papers at conferences, the two
groups (men and women scientists) differ in terms of academic rank. Discrimination is one
obvious explanation, and gender stratification can be proposed as a perspective to explain this
phenomenon. Research performance appears to be unrelated to the differential ranking of men
and women scientists—it points towards a lack of universalistic factors in promotion. Another
finding is that there is no difference between men and women scientists in terms of recognition
measures, such as awards and membership of professional organisations. The results reveal:
(a) the role of gender, an ascriptive factor, as a reference point from which differentiation does
take place within Indian scientific institutions; and (b) the association between scientific careers
for women and the class structure.
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