DUBAI, UAE. -- What does a venerable, 167-year-old college in the
heart of New England have in common with a 17-year-old, emerging
college in the booming city of Dubai? A great deal, it turns out.
Women’s colleges from around the world gathered at Dubai Women’s
College in the United Arab Emirates, January 4-6, 2006, for the
second Women’s Education Worldwide conference to discuss the
many commonalities they share in promoting the education of women
around the globe and preparing women for leadership roles in science,
government, business, and politics.
The international Women’s Education Worldwide (WEW) conference,
titled “Women’s Hopes and Dreams,” brought together
the leaders of 22 women’s colleges and universities, including
representatives from Australia, Kenya, the United States, the United
Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Italy, Pakistan, India,
and the Philippines. The group included an interesting mix of well-established
colleges --like some of the United States’ “Seven Sister”
colleges-- and newly emerging institutions such as the Royal University
for Women in Bahrain, which is in just its first year of operation.
“We can really learn from each other as organizations. For
example, Dubai Women’s College is seen as a global model for
the use of technology in education, which many older institutions
are just beginning to explore,” stated Dr. Howard Reed, Dubai
Women’s College (DWC) Director. “We can all benefit
from this type of best practice exchange.”
The delegates were joined by keynote speaker Lubna Olayan, CEO
of Olayan Financing Company of Saudi Arabia and one of Forbes magazine’s
100 Most Powerful Women of 2005, who shared her views about educating
women leaders. “The reality is that the students at these
universities represent the future—of the UAE and beyond,”
she observed. Olayan emphasized that good leaders “don’t
dismiss values that are unlike their own” and that “hard
work needs to be emphasized now more than ever in our era of instant
gratification.” She discussed seven ingredients of strong
leadership: education, self-confidence, the ability to challenge
the status quo, a sense of balance, respect for others, personal
integrity, and determination and hard work.
President Joanne V. Creighton of Mount Holyoke College in South
Hadley, Massachusetts, USA, called the meeting “an invaluable
opportunity for academic leaders to pool their collective wisdom
to address the unfinished agenda of educating women and girls around
the globe.” Creighton noted that despite the progress women
have made on many fronts over the past hundred years, the world
is still one predominately shaped by men. “When women are
educated, all of society benefits—whether in terms of economic
productivity, public health, or an engaged citizenry. Women are
still the world’s greatest underutilized natural resource.
Education is the key to unlocking that potential.”
The Dubai meeting was the second international WEW conference.
The first took place at Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges in the
United States in June 2004. “Dubai Women’s College is
honored to host this important global conference focusing on women’s
education and the development of young female leaders in the fields
of science, engineering and technology,” stated Reed.
"The similarities shared by our students, whether enrolled
at Dubai Women's College or Smith College, are tremendously powerful,"
said Carol T. Christ, Smith College president. "The young women
I met in Dubai, and those I encounter in the lecture halls and labs
at Smith, all have the same hunger for knowledge and unwavering
desire to bring about change. By sharing our experiences, the leaders
of women's colleges enable the impact of our students to be experienced
in a way that is greater than what any of us could accomplish independently."
The group also discussed the importance of international student
collaboration, which was highlighted by a student presentation.
A delegation of Mount Holyoke students had conducted a week-long
leadership training workshop for DWC student council members, and
they shared their experience and learning outcomes with the WEW
participants. “It is very important for students from one
culture to work on real projects with students from other cultures,”
observed Dr. Marcia Grant, of The Aga Khan University in Karachi,
Pakistan. “I thought that the report of Dubai and Mount Holyoke
students was really moving and gave us a strong sense of how important
even a week-long exchange can be.”
One of the conference’s recommendations, based on the success
of the DWC/Mount Holyoke Leadership Program, is to have more virtual
and face-to-face experiences among women’s institutions around
the world. The conference delegates also recommended the establishment
of a structured association connecting their alumnae groups which
could also eventually lead to establishing a virtual center for
women studies. The delegates will integrate faculty and students
activities into the third WEW conference, scheduled to be held in
Italy in the summer of 2008.
About DWC
Dubai Women’s College, with more than 2,300 students, is a
part of the Higher Colleges of Technology. The HCT is one of the
leading higher education institutions in the UAE with 12 campuses
located throughout the country delivering a wide range of quality
programs to over 14,500 students.
About WEW
Women's Education Worldwide is an alliance of institutions of higher
education committed to advancing the cause of educating women around
the globe. This international initiative was founded in 2003 by
Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges, two of the original "Seven
Sisters" of U.S. higher education--a group that itself has
long benefited from collaboration at the national level. More information
is available at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/go/wew .
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About WEW 
