Amrita University’s AWESOME conference calls for ‘systems thinking’ to advance women’s empowerment

• AWESOME (Advancing Women’s Empowerment through Systems Model Expansion) supports the vision of women leveraging their internal and external resources to live free from discrimination in healthy, sustainable and safe environments, and to have access to quality education , cultural, political and socio-economic equality by 2050.
• The event covered topics such as computational social sciences, simulation and machine learning algorithms, and technological innovations to advance women’s empowerment.
• Conference participants pledge to ‘break the stigma’ against gender inequality for International Women’s Day

The Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality (CWEGE) in Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, organized the International Conference on Systems Thinking and Women’s Empowerment to advance women’s empowerment through the expansion Models of Systems (AWESOME), an international virtual conference, recently, which called for systems thinking, a way of understanding the wholes and their relationships of a subject and creating multi-sectoral interventions, to advance the empowerment of women.

Co-organized by Systems Innovation, Mumbai and supported by the Indian Council for Social Science Research and Esri India Technologies, in commemoration of International Women’s Day which falls on March 8, the theme of the conference was “Advancing the ’empowerment of women through the expansion of systems models’. AWESOME attracted the participation of 12 keynote speakers and hundreds of thinkers, researchers, practitioners, educators and innovators from interdisciplinary groups from 12 countries. There were 15 paper presentations on systems thinking, women’s and gender studies, technological innovation and related fields.

Giving an overview of AWESOME during the inaugural session of the conference, Dr. Bhavani Rao, UNESCO Chair in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (India), Dean – CWEGE, said, “The he goal of AWESOME is to provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss and exchange ideas and perspectives on the potential of complexity science, systems thinking, innovation and research to impact to address the intersectionality of women’s empowerment and make interventions on this front more effective and sustainable.

She pointed out that the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 estimates that the time needed to close the gender gap in the world has increased over the past 12 months, from 99.5 years.

(estimated in 2020) at 136 years. “We cannot afford to wait 136 years for more than half of the world’s population to reach parity. Existing interventions, while well-intentioned, are too often one-dimensional. Gender inequality is an ongoing problem that requires creative, holistic and systemic approaches.

She said the AWESOME framework supports the vision of women leveraging their internal and external resources to live free from discrimination in healthy, sustainable and safe environments, and to enjoy access to quality education. , to cultural, political and socio-economic equality by 2050.

During the presentation of his article Prof. Arch. Carmine Gambardella, UNESCO Chair in Landscape, Cultural Heritage and Territorial Governance and CEO of BENECON, said that when a butterfly’s wings touch part of a web, its touch reverberates across the entire web. . The systems thinking framework is based on this understanding. It can be an effective approach to addressing multiple factors that impact women’s empowerment and gender equality.

In his address, Dr Vandana Shiva, an Indian scholar, environmental activist, ecofeminist and author, said the Indian philosophy of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the earth is one family) is based on systems thinking. Systems thinking can create lasting change in women’s empowerment and gender equity. She noted that despite all the efforts devoted to empowering women, statistics show that globally, women still face disrespect, powerlessness and discrimination in all categories of race, religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status and ability.

Mrs. Deepa Narayan, Ph.D., author of “Chup: Breaking the Silence on Indian Women” and former World Bank Advisor, said: “We live in a very unequal world and this inequality is particularly strong between men and women. . The common notion is that men are somehow superior and therefore it is they who should make the decisions and dominate. Entire cultures have been built around it. The empowerment of women is essential, not only for the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities, but also for overall economic productivity.

Ms Charu Sinha, IG, Central Reserve Police Force, Srinagar Sector, said there is still a huge gender gap in educational attainment, especially for the very poor. If women have not achieved more than the 10th standard, they will probably only work in the informal and dangerous economy. “All women’s leadership journeys are about how we navigated spaces created by men. So how do we change those norms and bring more sensitivity and empathy into the system and make it easier for all women to thrive This is the gender conversation we need to have,” she remarked.

The conference had sessions on: applications of systems thinking and applied research, project results and evidence-based practices in women’s empowerment and gender equality. He has also covered topics such as computational social sciences, simulation and machine learning algorithms, and technological innovations to advance women’s empowerment. There were targeted workshops, tutorial sessions and

presentations of open source tools and programs. AWESOME also saw 15 paper presentations on systems thinking, women’s and gender studies, technology innovation, and related fields.