Every year, the registration numbers for Common Admission Test (CAT) suggest that women applying for the management entrance exam are half of the total registrations by male applicants. In CAT 2021, a total of 1.24 lakh men took the exam as compared to only 66, 850 women. Similarly in 2019, a total of 2.44 lakh candidates applied for CAT, of which over 1.6 lakh were male and only 86,000 were female.
More male aspirants for management entrance exam
MP Ram Mohan, professor at IIM Ahmedabad and CAT2021 Convenor, believes that there could be several reasons why male candidates outnumber females writing CAT but the primary reason includes the academic background of the test-takers.
“Though it requires a detailed analysis of behaviour and educational interest, out of many, one primary reason could be that majority of the CAT applications and MBA candidates continue to be from engineering disciplines. I am not commenting on the merits and demerits of disciplines, but, as we know male candidates outnumber females in engineering colleges,” Professor Ram said.
The gender disparity is evident in the registration data for the engineering entrance exam. The National Testing Agency (NTA) had received 6.5 lakh registrations for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main February 2021 session. However, there was a difference of more than 2.5 lakh between the male and female registrations. More boys than double of girls appeared for the engineering entrance exam.
Similarly, 75 per cent of the total candidates who registered for the JEE Advanced 2021 – entrance exam for admission in IITs – were male. Only 34,530 of the total 1, 41,699 applicants were female.
