While girls outshine boys in Class 12 board examinations year after year in terms of both pass percentage and top slots, results of IIT-JEE have been a different story.
This year, the female topper in IIT-JEE (advanced), Ramya Narayanaswamy from Hyderabad, was at the 35th position among the top 100 rank holders. Sadly, she was also the only girl to make it into this elite list.

This space is clearly dominated by boys. Girls are breaking the glass ceiling for sure but are they improving?
We looked at data of five years to access the performance of girls in IIT-JEE (advanced) exams:
- 2017
1,59,540 students took the exam.
50,455 candidates cleared it, of whom 43,318 are boys (86%) and 7,137 girls (14%).
The girl topper’s rank is 35.
And she is the only rank holder in the top 100
2016
1,47,678 students appeared for the exam.
36,566 candidates qualified, of whom 31,996 were boys and 4,579 girls (12.49%).
The girl topper’s rank was 133.
No girl made it into the list of top 100

In 2015
1,27,238 students took the exam.
26,456 candidates qualified, of whom 23,407 were boys and 3,049 girls (11.54%).
The girl topper’s rank was 47.
She was the only one among the top 100.
In 2014
1,26,997 candidates took the exam.
27,151 candidates qualified, of whom 24,165 were boys and 2,986 girls (11%).
The girl topper’s rank was 7.
Five girls made it to the top 100 – a first in the history of IIT-JEE

In 2013
1,15,791 students took the exam.
21,110 candidates qualified, of whom 18,718 were boys and 2,392 girls (11%).
The girl topper’s rank was 6.