Sudipta Sengupta, the first Indian woman to conquer Antarctica

Imagine an Indian woman in the 1980s overcoming her dread of the unknown and venturing to icy Antarctica. Yes, there was a time when Indian women were reluctant to take up strenuous careers, let alone embark on extreme adventure journeys. Sudipta Sengupta, a professor at Jadavpur University’s Structural Geology Department and a former employee of the Geological Survey of India, not only defeated patriarchy at work but also performed something that women in her age could never have dreamed.

Sengupta embarked on this perilous journey in 1983. Later on, many other women followed in her footsteps, some of them were even her students. Her book on her Antarctica expedition is still read today. Sengupta accomplished this accomplishment during a time when women were not even permitted to labour in the field, let alone embark on an exciting excursion. Women were few and far between when it came to studying geology. It was thought to be a male-dominated territory. Despite the fact that women currently account for roughly half of all pupils. Sengupta had long wanted to learn more about the South Pole’s geological beauties, and she did so on this daring journey that opened up a new vision for all women for decades to come.

In 1851, the government founded the Geological Survey of India, and in 1892, the Presidency College in Calcutta established the country’s first geology department. Geology, on the other hand, remained the domain of men in India until the 1990s. Female pupils were even discouraged from accompanying male teachers on field trips.

However, after conversing with a lecturer at Jadavpur University, Sengupta decided to pursue geology rather than physics, at least in part because she enjoyed travelling.

In her work as a structural geologist, Sengupta has studied the formation and deformation of rocks, using the results to compose what she called the “story of a region”.

She enrolled at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling to aid her career and pursue her aspirations, training under Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two men to conquer Mt Everest in 1953.

She later joined Jadavpur University as a professor in 1982.

The main impediment was the university’s lack of preparedness to accept women on field trips. Only after 1996 did the percentage of female students begin to rise, approaching a third.

Maria Klenova, a Soviet marine geologist, was the first female scientist to visit Antarctica in the mid-1950s.

Sengupta volunteered to join an Indian expedition to Antarctica in 1982, but her application was turned down due to her gender.

The government asked her to an interview the next year, after which she was sent to Kargil to train. In 1983, she went to Antarctica for the first time, and then again in 1989.

Women have also been travelling on annual Antarctic trips since 1983. Women also accounted for “30-40%” of the expedition’s crew.