Girl power is on the rise – in a historic feat, women account for over a third of the candidates who cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination this year, results of which were declared on Tuesday. This is the highest number of women selected for the civil services in a single year.

And this is not the first time that women have triumphed in the UPSC exam. Women’s share in the civil services has been steadily expanding in a positive pattern that is being observed for the past few years.

  1. 01

    Women claim top 4 ranks

    Women have staked claim on the top four ranks this year. Notably, this is the second consecutive year women candidates have secured the top three positions. Of the top 25 this year, 14 are women.

    Ishita Kishore, an SRCC graduate from Gautam Buddha Nagar, bagged the first position in the examination in her third attempt.

    Garima Lohia – a Kirorimal College graduate from Bihar, Uma Harathi N – who holds a BTech degree from IIT Hyderabad, and Smriti Mishra – a BSc graduate from Miranda House secured the second, third, and fourth ranks respectively.

  2. 02

    Rise in recent years

    The percentage of women candidates recommended by the UPSC has increased from 24 percent in 2018 to 34 percent in 2022.

    For 2022, 320 of the 933 candidates recommended for appointments are women. For 2021, 177 – or 26 percent – 685 selected candidates were women. In 2019, a total of 922 candidates, a number comparable to this year’s results, were recommended for appointment.

     

  3. 03

    Change over the decades

    Civil services, like many other fields, has long remained male-dominated. Till 2006, women’s share in the total candidates selected by the UPSC was around 20 percent.

    In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was below 20 percent.

  4. 04

    Similar patterns in other exams as well

    Women had topped the NEET (UG) and NEET (PG) medical entrance exams this year. In the class 12 board exam results for 2022, girls had outshone boys by a significant margin. Two girls had jointly topped the class 12 board exams. While the pass percentage for girls was 94.54 percent, the figure was 91.25 percent for boys.

    Girls have been outperforming boys in class 12 board exams for the last five years.

  5. 05

    Some other figures

    • A total of 5,73,735 candidates had appeared for the civil services examination conducted in 2022.
    • 13,090 of the total candidates had then qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination which was held in September 2022. A total of 2,529 candidates had further qualified for the personality test exam
    • The recommended candidates also include 41 persons with disabilities.

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