Gender Disparity in Higher Education: A Critical Appraisal

Status of a person or group in any society is an area of deep concern across the limitation of class, caste and gender divisions. Many researchers have tried to find out the condition of women especially and the level of their participation in different spheres of social life. In a developing country like India where half of the population is female, women play an important role in country’s development and their participation in different spheres of life becomes a key to their empowerment. When the need for women empowerment was felt, the first and foremost means adopted was enhancing their participation in different spheres of society. One such important area is visibility and performance of an individual in higher education. In this juncture, the present paper explores and makes a critical appraisal of the existing gender disparity in the area of higher education. More specifically, this paper focuses on the case of gender disparity in higher education of Manipur, Northeast India.