Women’s Empowerment: Moving toward sustainable development
On the first day of Women’s Empowerment webinar held in collaboration with the Mustafa(Pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) on February 3rd, 2021, prominent Muslim women scientists from around the world discussed women’s empowerment in the field of science and technology.
MSTF Media reports:
Held on the occasion of the birthday anniversary of Fatimah al-Zahra
, the first day of the one-week virtual meetings series on the topic of Women’s Empowerment was dedicated to “Women’s Empowerment in the field of Science and Technology.”
The event, held by Women Research Center of Alzahra University in collaboration with the Mustafa
Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF), hosted eminent scientists from different Islamic countries on the first day.
At the opening of this virtual event, President of Alzahra University, Mahnaz Mollanazari, stressed that sustainable development leads to the growth and prosperity of human beings. Noting that the means for achieving sustainable development is beyond material requirements, she stated “Focusing on human flourishing and establishing equality between men and women will end in success.”
Highlighting that “the empowerment of women prompts development,” she said holding such webinars is a great opportunity to reflect on and re-evaluate the challenges, impediments, and the prerequisites needed to be considered in the path of realization of empowerment’s goals.
Rana Dajani, Jordanian molecular biologist and the President of OWSD Jordan Chapter, delivered a speech titled “Seeing what everyone sees, but thinking what no one has thought.” Drawing attention to the title of her speech, which is a well-known saying by a Nobel Prize winner, she said “To me this is actually the hallmark of a scientist, but it’s also what makes us human. It’s an innate thing in us that we always want to look around, see what’s new, and think in different new ways.”
“This is a part of our culture, our heritage, and also our religion which asks us to observe and be curious. So, in this spirit, I’m going to try to reimagine what success looks like,” she continued.
Showing data regarding the presence of women in labor market, she said that the number of women in job market is lower than men in different sectors all over the world. “Of course, today we are focusing on science, technology, and innovation, but the pattern applies to all sectors,” she observed.
“I want to tackle this question from the perspective of ‘seeing what everybody has seen, but thinking what no one has thought,’ while adopting the scientific method to try to understand why this is so and how we can change it for the better,” she continued.
According to the data Dajani provided the audience with, it is estimated that 55% of women in prime working age have jobs, and that about 40% of all the world’s workers are women. But there’s a huge gap between Denmark, where nearly half of all employees are women, and Qatar, where the number of female employees is only one out of 10.
Dajani noted that generally, more gender parity in work is a good thing; however, high percentage of women’s involvement sometimes indicates necessity rather than choice or opportunity.
During her speech she also elaborated on and provided solutions for the issue of the underrepresentation of women throughout their scientific career.
Aishath Muneeza from the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), gave a speech on “Policy Considerations for Women’s Empowerment in Science and Technology.”
She stated that the main reason why we need to talk about this issue is that there is a huge gender gap in science and technology.
“This has been confirmed by numerous research conducted in this regard,” she added.
“According to an article published by World Economic Forum in 2019, 72% of scientific research is conducted by men. This is the situation that is found in many of the Muslim-majority countries as well,” Muneeza continued.
She elaborated on the challenges and impediments faced by women in their paths toward educational success and career progression.
Education is the first issue, she maintained, adding that for a long time, education was considered to be the province of men only. It is of high importance that women themselves reach the perspective that education is essential for them as well.
Muneeza highlighted that another issue is “gender pay gap”—men’s salary has always been higher than women in the same occupation.
Such issues have discouraged women and made them not to show their full potential, unlike men, she said.
Introducing the measures needed to be taken in order to empower women in science and technology, Muneeza said one of the most important issues is policy-making. Some policies have to be taken into consideration and implemented by governments in every country. In this regard, gender pay gap requires special consideration because it strongly results in the discouragement of women, she believed.
Moreover, some research needs to be conducted on the deficiencies in women’s education. Following this, “women need to be invited to enter the labor market,” she underscored, adding that one of the issues here is that the works needed to be carried out have mostly been focused on and started by men. In other words, generally, men are the ones who not only do the majority of works, but also embark on doing them.
“Women need to be assured they can initiate a work as well,” she added.
She further raised the issue that science and technology are spheres in which women have greatly been harmed and marginalized.
Muneeza concluded that close attention must be paid to the above-mentioned issues in the future policies that are to be adopted and operated, emphasizing that “such policies, all have the potential to be pursued and carried out.”
Fadzilah Kamaludin, Director of Institute for Medical Research, Malaysia, addressed “Women Workforce in Healthcare Industry” during this virtual event.
She stated that for a healthy population, we need to have a good foundation in terms of sustainable social, economic, and environmental development.
In terms of gender equity, we need to think and come up with solutions to ensure women’s active participation and equal share in economic, social, cultural, and political decision making, she added.
McKinsey & Company surveyed about more than 10.000 employees at 11 healthcare companies and found out that “the healthcare industry appears to be one of the best industries for working women,” Kamaludin said, adding that currently more than 60% of the employees in healthcare organization all over the world are women.
The detailed diagrams she showed, illustrated that there is a gap in the number of men and women employees in different sectors all over the world. “The number of male employees are higher in many work sectors, but this gender gap is narrowed in the realm of health,” she said.
She further hinted at the issue of career satisfaction, stating “compared to men, women have higher levels of spiritual motivation in the sphere of health, especially in nursing.”
Moreover, women in healthcare tend to be happier about their career compared to men in the same field, she added.
According to Kamaludin, 50% of women who have been educated in different spheres of health, are drawn in by healthcare industries.
“Overall, the number of men working in healthcare sectors is decreasing,” she observed.
Kamaludin also noted that according to the data, there is no gender gap in promotion rates in healthcare, unlike many other industries.
All over the world, she emphasized, we have to put our efforts into making sure that women in all spheres from education to employment and job promotion, are evaluated fairly and based on their merits—a dream that fortunately seems to be coming true.
The Women’s Empowerment one-week event, encompassing discussions on empowering women in different areas, is held virtually from February 3rd to February 10th.
Rana Dajani was a keynote speaker of the 7th Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP) held by the MSTF in May 2020. Aishath Muneeza was a speaker of the 6th STEP’s Financing Science and Technology Summit and delivered a keynote speech in Scientific Collaboration Summit. Fadzilah Kamaludin was a panelist at 6th STEP’s Women in Science and Technology Summit and made a speech on “public health” at Health, People and Environment Summit.
