Why CAT is dominated by male Engg grads
Comparatively fewer women appear for the exam, which results in less representation of successful female candidates in the CAT
c-Puniti.Pandey@timesgroup.com
10.01.2022
The recently announced CAT 2021 results have yet again highlighted that the exams continue to be dominated by male candidates. All the nine top scorers who have secured 100 percentile are male. Also, all the 19 candidates scoring 99. 99 percentile are male. Around 19 candidates have achieved 99. 98 percentile of which only one is female. Among the top scorers, most candidates are from an Engineering background.
“If you look at the CAT registration data, the number of male candidates is substantially larger than the number of female candidates. It is quite natural that on account of the larger pool of male candidates applying, there is a continued consistency in male candidates performing better in large numbers,” says MP Ram Mohan, professor and CAT 2021 Convenor, IIM Ahmedabad.
Traditionally, Engineering students write CAT in large numbers, he adds. Moreover, the exam pattern of CAT comprising of VARC, QA and DILR is designed to test a candidate’s ability to solve problems. The kind of skill-based education an Engineering student or a student in a similar discipline gets could be giving them the edge and an innate ability to solve problems.
“There is less representation of successful female candidates in the CAT results as fewer females appear for the exam as compared to male candidates”, explains Arks Srinivas, head faculty, Career Launcher. Around 35% of female candidates write the CAT as against 65% of males. Most of the top positions are again occupied by male candidates from Engineering background as they have an edge over candidates from other non-engineering backgrounds. After BTech, the second most dominating degree in CAT is BCom, BSc and then BBA.
To improve the male-female ratio in the business colleges, the IIMs and the top MBA institutes are encouraging female candidates to ap-
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