Amrita Ph. D. students, Christopher Coley and Srividya Seshadri of our Center for Women Empowerment and Gender Equality along with professors, Dr. Sriram Devanathan & Dr. Bhavani Rao have published their South India based women empowerment framework as a research article “Contextualizing Women’s Empowerment Frameworks with an Emphasis on Social Support: A Study in Rural, South India” in the journal “Community, Work & Family”.

Their article presents a finding from Amrita’s extensive women’s empowerment initiatives in rural India, specifically on the need to restructure empowerment frameworks to better account for family and male support. Improving the social and cultural support for women is the most important aspect of women’s empowerment. The role that men play in the process of empowerment: either as supporters or obstacles was studied by the researchers.

Dr. Bhavani Rao, our UNESCO chair in women empowerment and gender equality heads this center based at our Amritapuri campus. Dr. Sriram Devanathan is a professor and Principal at the Amrita School of Engineering, Bengaluru campus.

Today, with the rest of the world, Amrita also celebrates International Day for Women and Girls in STEM WomenInScience.