IEEE Women’s Leadership Summit Begins

A two-day IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Kerala Section International Leadership Summit kicked off here on Friday.

The event marks its 20th anniversary celebrations and showcases female talent who have achieved phenomenal success in the fields of engineering, business, arts or humanitarianism.

Opening the conference, Aswathy Thirunal Gauri Lakshmi Bayi of the former Travancore Royal Family said that Kerala had a long history of discourse on women’s empowerment even before its formation following the reorganization of the ‘State. “In 1817, Gowri Parvati Bayi, the regent of old Travancore, issued the Royal Rescript for Universal Education by which Travancore became the first government in the world to issue an edict for free and compulsory education sponsored by the ‘State for all boys and girls.’

During the 1920s, former Queen Sethu Lakshmi Bayi encouraged and made significant contributions to women’s higher education, she said.

The summit is held under the theme “Empowerment, Leadership and Equality”. It was aimed at motivating and empowering women entrepreneurs and professionals, and would discuss roadmaps towards successful models of entrepreneurship for women, said Mini Ulanat, President of IEEE Kerala.

The highlight of the first day was a panel discussion on “diversity and gender equality”. Anne Ferrer, Executive Director, Rural Development Trust, Andhra Pradesh, led the plenary session on ‘Bringing Change Through Caring’.