Four women have made it to the Top 5 list in the UPSC results announced recently. Ishita Kishore, Garima Lohia, Uma Harathi N, and Smriti Mishra secured Top 4 ranks respectively in the UPSC CSE 2022.
It is the second consecutive year that women have secured the top 3 ranks.
In all, six women made it to the top 10 this time. In the top 25, women again dominate the list, with 14 of them making it to the list.
According to reports, 933 candidates — 613 men and 320 women — have qualified for the civil services examination 2022. They have qualified for appointment to the IAS, IFS, IPS, and Central Services – Group A and Group B.
UPSC has seen such streaks of brilliant performances by women in the past as well. However, their UPSC path is riddled with barriers due to biases that see them as unsuitable for positions that are not typically 9—5 jobs and for postings in volatile areas in some states of India. The data reflects the sobering reality as women comprise only 1/10th of the total number that entered civil services between 1951 and 2020. Another report states that for every 20 male IAS officers, there is one woman IAS officer.
Since 2015, UPSC has made consistent efforts to correct the imbalance, inviting women candidates to appear for the exams.
