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6/15/2009
 
Introduction
Women are key for a nation's ability to innovate and their socio- economic status is one of the strategic indicators of a country's development. However, an analysis of the UN's Gender- related Development Index ( GDI ) shows major differences between men and women in the areas of education, health and quality of life and there are glaring gaps between the targets set by countries for women's empowerment and the true social, educational and economic status of women. Women are often the most marginalized in the developing countries, facing several kind of discrimination. Even when they are able to organize themselves, they lack negotiating power. Despite considerable improvement in women's education over the last few decades, they continue to remain highly under-represented in many areas particularly in the fields of science and technology. Due to the lack of participation of women in these fields almost half of the human brain pool is wasted, thereby affecting the economy of the countries. One of the eight UN's Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ) targeted to be achieved by 2015 is to promote gender equality and empower women.
Trends towards a market economy in the new era of globalization have widened the gap between education and technology opportunities for men and women. According to UNESCO Bulletin on S & T Statistics, women represent less than 30% of researchers in the world, and this share is much less for Asia ( 15% ), South Asia ( 12 % ) and India ( 10 % ). At the same time, wherever programmes have been conscientiously designed keeping in mind the specific needs and potential of women, new opportunities for women's empowerment have been generated and in the era of new technology and knowledge society, women are slowly and steadily embracing the knowledge .
Women's leadership is a crucial element in development and the expansion of women's capabilities not only enhances women's own freedom and well-being, but also has beneficial effects on society as a whole. Gender issues need to be integrated with the larger perspectives of reforms and there is a need to recognize women as stakeholders.
In the field of science and technology To become leaders, the developing countries need to draw upon the talents from all sections of society, including the women with special interest and aptitude in science. However, several factors affect women scientist's career progress. These include absence of role models and mentors, lack of access to information and support facilities, social bias and family responsibilities . Women scientists can overcome many of these hurdles by understanding their effects and learning appropriate skills to deal with them. An important mechanism through which S & T can play a major role in empowering women is imparting skills and vocational training to the women for self-employment and establishment of micro-enterprises through S & T inputs and initiating specially designed developmental programmes suitable for women belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society and rural areas.
The development of equal opportunities and equal rights for women and men has been a global issue for decades. However, countries in different regions of the world have different problems and a different pace in this process, and they have adopted different approaches. The strength and scope of political movements and organisations advocating women’s rights also vary regionally and nationally. Furthermore, experts and scholars are involved in various ways, and different kinds of gender research institutes and gender studies have evolved.
This interdisciplinary conference aims at presenting research on the relations between women’s grassroots activism, gender research and political changes regionally and internationally. Under which circumstances are feminist movements and NGO’s successful in generating legal and other reforms for gender equality? What are the experiences on what works and what does not? What is the role of international organisations? What is the relation between grassroots activism, gender research and research in general in the era of globalisation?
Political structures, movements and changes are embedded in and characterised by complex historical and cultural textures. What kind of knowledge has been generated from specific contexts of women’s rights activism? How can this knowledge be shared and implemented within existing institutional structures?
Taking into consideration that Yemen is a least developed country, some success in closing the gender gap can be measured in both the Yemeni education and health sectors. However, there is still too much to be done both in these two sectors as well as in all other sectors; especially legislation and politics. Considerable discrepancies are evident between urban and rural areas, as well as amongst social categories/classes.
Only 26% of the university population are women. With the growing numbers of students graduating from the secondary school and the general community concept of 'everybody going to university' large numbers of those school graduates are unable to find a place; less than 6% of all school graduates make it to college. The proportion of urban to rural areas population with university education is 7:1. These two factors, in addition to other social and logistical challenges already hampering girls' education in Yemen.
The Royal Netherlands Embassy (RNE) in Sana’a has a long trajectory and leadership in gender issues in Yemen. Since the nineties, the Embassy employs an advisor for gender issues, and gender is fully integrated in the Multi-Annual Strategy Plan
2008-11.
Since November 2004, the Women Research and Training Centre (WRTC) of the Aden University in Yemen is cooperating with Wageningen University (WU) and other Dutch partners in a Nuffic/NPT project aiming at WRTC’s organizational and institutional development. In particular, the project supports the development of new courses, staff training and infrastructure as well as the organizational and institutional development processes of WRTC.
WRTC conducted a lot of studies related to gender issues for third parties and cooperated with YWAST to conduct some scientific activities like " fetal anomalies and it's impact on he attitude of family and society and other activities. So it's important to evaluate and find out another cooperation with another centers for women studies in the Region.
According to all points WRTC- Aden University with cooperation of YWAST and TWOWS- Arab Region decided to highlight to many topics which could support to build networking with women's organizations and gender centers in region and internationally through organizing second international conference.
Objectives of the conference :
a- General objectives:
- To study the present status of women’s empowerment in the fields of education, health, economic resources, science and technology in the developing countries.
- To identify the strategies, struggles and interventions for women’s empowerment in a range of domains.
- To identify the policy initiatives required to be taken by the developing countries for empowerment of women.
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- To facilitate Regional and international cooperation and networking on women and gender studies and on women ‘s empowerment.
b- Specific objectives:
- To have an understanding of the use of science and technology for the economic empowerment of women.
- To prepare the guidelines for a comprehensive framework to enhance the contribution of women in building knowledge society.
- To identify various mechanism suitable for women empowerment through S & T interventions.
- To recommend schemes and programmes including training courses on S & T suitable for economic empowerment of women in the developing countries.
Topic of the conference :
Globalization, Engendered Knowledge systems and Strategies for Women’s Empowerment
Themes
- Gender, labor and economic empowerment.
- Gender and Political Empowerment.
- Legal Empowerment, gender and law in Arab countries.
- Gender , environment and sustainable natural resources.
- Gender and migration.
- Women in science and technology .
- Gender and health.
- Gender and violence.
- Gender and educational empowerment.
About The Organizers :
1- Third World Organization for Women in Science :
The Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS) has been in existence since 1989 following the recommendation of the Canadian International Development Agency ( CIDA ) and the Academy of Science for the Developing World ( TWAS ) meeting in October 1988, in Trieste. After much debate, a consensus was reached which envisaged TWOWS as an international organization which would play a vital role in increasing women's access to science and technology and in promoting greater participation of women scientists and technologists in the development process of their respective countries and in the international community.
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