SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT OF SOCIETIES
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Abstract
Women are a great human resource and the role of women in society is absolutely vital for its progress. Arguably, to empower women is to increase their control over the decisions that affect their lives both within and outside the household. Through their empowerment women gain greater share of control over resources–material, human and intellectual such as knowledge, information, ideas – and financial resources involving access to money and control over decision making in the home, community, society and nation. It leads them to become a critical and vital stakeholder among the human capital and their strategic presence in the society is widely accepted.
Worldwide the capacity of women to engage in the knowledge society is grossly underutilized. In the knowledge society, they need access not only to new technologies but also to education, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities as well as the ability to participate fully in knowledge-based activities. The involvement and engagement of women in the Information Society on an equal footing with men would directly contribute to improving the livelihood of people, making it more sustainable and thereby promoting the social and economic advancement of societies.
Governments must design and implement national policies and programmes that promote science and technology education for women and girls. Programmes should be strengthened to bring about a greater involvement of women in science and technology. These should include measures to motivate girls to take up science and technology for higher education and also ensure that development projects with scientific and technical inputs have a total involvement of women. Efforts to develop appropriate technologies suited to women’s needs as well as to reduce their drudgery have to be given a special focus too. Programmes should be worked out to empower women through innovative scientific activities integrating action oriented literacy, sound micro-finance and micro-enterprise training as well as an understanding of legal rights and advocacy.
Apart from the efforts of the various organizations, multilateral bodies and civil society, the positive role of women also depends on the supportive attitudes of their local family unit, the local community in each village and town. We just hope that women become empowered at 100 per cent and become equal to men so that both of them work side by side for a better world of today.
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