AWESOME Conference at Amrita University Advances Women Empowerment through Systems Thinking

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 17 March 2022

The Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's Center for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality (CWEGE) recently hosted the International Conference on Systems Thinking & Women's Empowerment Advancing Women's Empowerment through Systems Model Expansion (AWESOME), an international virtual conference that called for systems thinking, a way of understanding wholes and their relationships of a subject and creating multi-sectoral interventions, to advance women empowerment.

The conference's theme was 'Advancing Women's Empowerment through Systems Model Expansion,' which was co-organized by Systems Innovation in Mumbai and supported by the Indian Council for Social Science Research and Esri India Technologies in honour of International Women's Day, which falls on March 8. AWESOME drew hundreds of thinkers, researchers, practitioners, educators, and innovators from transdisciplinary groups from 12 nations, as well as 12 keynote speakers. There were 15 papers on topics such as systems thinking, technology innovation, women and gender studies, and other related topics.

Dr. Bhavani Rao, UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (India), Dean – CWEGE, gave an overview of AWESOME at the conference's opening session, saying, “The aim of AWESOME is to offer a platform for the stakeholders to discuss and exchange ideas and perspectives on the potential of complexity science, systems thinking, innovation, and impact research to address the intersectionality of women empowerment and make interventions on this front more effective and sustainable.”

She noted that, according to the World Economic Forum's 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, the time required to close the global gender gap has increased from 99.5 years (expected in 2020) to 136 years in the same year. “We cannot afford to wait 136 years for more than half the world’s population to achieve parity. Existing interventions, while well-intentioned, are too often unidimensional. Gender inequality is an ongoing issue that requires creative, holistic, and systemic approaches.”

She further said, “the AWESOME Framework upholds 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, cultural, political, and socioeconomic equality by 2050.”

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

Dr. Vandana Shiva, an Indian scholar, environmental activist, ecofeminist, and author, remarked, “the Indian philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the earth is one family) is based on systems thinking. Systems thinking can create a sustainable change in women empowerment and gender equity. She noted that despite all the efforts devoted to women’s empowerment, statistics show that globally, women still experience disrespect, disempowerment, and discrimination across all lines of race, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and ability.”

Ms. Deepa Narayan, Ph.D., author of "Chup: Breaking the Silence on India's Women" and former World Bank advisor, stated, “We live in a very unequal world and this inequality is particularly strong between men and women. The prevalent notion is that men are somehow superior and so they are the ones who should make the decisions and dominate. Entire cultures are built around this. Empowering women is essential, not only for the well-being of the individuals, families and rural communities, but also for overall economic productivity.”

Ms. Charu Sinha, IG, Srinagar Sector, Central Reserve Police Force, stated, “there is still a vast gender gap in education attainment, especially for the very poor. If women did not get more than 10th standard, they are likely to only work in the informal, unsafe economy. All the leadership journeys of women are about how we have navigated in spaces created by men. Then how do we change these standards and bring more sensitivity and empathy into the system and make it easier for all women to grow? This is the gender conversation that we need to have.”

Application of systems thinking, applied research, project findings, and evidence-based approaches to women's empowerment and gender equality were among the topics covered during the conference. Topics included computational social sciences, simulation and machine learning techniques, and technology breakthroughs to promote women's empowerment. Workshops, tutorials, and presentations of open-source tools and curriculum were also held. 15 papers on systems thinking, women's and gender studies, technology innovation, and allied topics were also presented at AWESOME.