India, July 19 -- A teacher in school once told Rupal Dhall she should become a lawyer because she was so argumentative. That remark planted the seed of a dream. Earlier this year, Rupal graduated with an integrated BA/LLB degree from the Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Mahavidyalaya (BPSMV), an all-women's college in Sonepat, Haryana where many of the students are, like Rupal, first-generation learners from rural backgrounds. The daughter of landless farmers, Rupal wants to be a judge. She has begun work with a lawyer at the district courts in Sonepat to complete the three years' experience required before she can take the judicial exams. But, just in case, she has a Plan B: a master's degree in law. "If I don't become a judge, at least I can be a professor," she reasons. When I ask if there is pressure on her to marry, the 22-year-old laughs, "My parents say I must prove myself first." Rupal's story is no longer an outlier. India's revolution in education led by a new generation of aspirational women supported by their families has gone largely unheralded. Earlier this month, the government released the findings of its annual survey on higher education. Behind the numbers and terms like gross enrolment ratio (GER) - the proportion of people aged 18-23 who are enrolled - lies one remarkable fact: For the seventh year in a row, women are powering enrolment in institutions of higher learning. Women make up 49.7% of all students in higher education, but their GER of 31.2 exceeds that of men at 28.9. The 22.4 million Indian women in various degree and professional programmes, reflect an increase of 6.7 million since 2014. At the postgraduate level, women account for 56.2% of all students. Part of this progress reflects years of investment in girls' education. In Bihar, for instance, sustained programmes to prevent child marriage have resulted in girls staying in school longer. Once past this stage, these girls are more likely to take up higher education. But mainly, it's the women themselves. There is no hiding the "aspiration of young women to learn more and experience the freedoms of university life, as well as parental support for this quest," says Ashwini Deshpande, economics professor at Ashoka University. It's an aspiration that has "well and truly arrived in rural India," agrees Sudesh Chhikara, vice chancellor at BPSMV. "Families that once saw a daughter's education as an expense now see it as an investment." Some gaps are proving stickier than others. In science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), female enrolment is 44%, up from 38.4% in 2014-15. Some streams like undergraduate engineering remain male-dominated with only 31.1% of women, just a marginal shift up from 30.1% in 2022-23. Chhikara says the gap is narrowing with women opting for science, technology and management in the hope that a career will follow a professional degree. "It is our job to make sure a girl from a village gets the same quality of STEM education as anyone in a metro," she says. The question to now ask is "What next". What do these millions of additional degrees mean if they do not open the doors to careers, financial independence and leadership? It is here that India continues to lag both in terms of workforce participation and in the load of unpaid care work. Perhaps the biggest irony came just days after the report. Speaking at a university convocation, Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel reminded women graduates of their responsibility to become "expert mothers". In a very real way, Patel's remarks reminded us that women are opening the doors of institutions. The real challenge lies in opening the minds of those in power....