Photo shows Prof. Mari Osawa, center, Chair of Gender Equality Panel, addressing the meeting, with Prof. Jean-Louis Armand, AIT President, and Dr. Bernadette Resurreccion of Gender and Development Studies Field of Study.
The Gender Equality Panel Meets
for the First Time
The first-ever meeting of AIT's Gender Equality Panel was held on Friday, July 12, 2002. The goals of the GEP, as agreed by the Board of Trustees at its April 25 2002 meeting, are broadly to promote gender equality in AIT's work, and to ensure that AIT's gender-related goals in research and education activities are met. The meeting was chaired by Professor Mari Osawa, President of the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo.
AIT is one of the first universities in Asia to institutionalize efforts to promote gender equality. Professor Osawa noted that the University of Tokyo had also recently established a gender equality panel. Unlike AIT's, however, their panel does not have external representation. For a technological university, AIT has already made substantial strides towards gender equality. 35% of students are now women, with figures in some fields already more than 50%. And whereas there were only two women faculty members ten years ago, there are now 17. These figures hide certain discrepancies: exclude management and other social sciences, and student figures are less impressive; exclude language and gender faculty, and less than 9% of AIT's faculty are women.
As a first step, the GEP will develop a plan for actualizing its goals. To facilitate this, a technical sub-committee will be appointed to compile ongoing activities into a report, from which the GEP will produce a gender equality plan, which will be presented to the Board of Trustees for endorsement. The Board would then expect AIT to implement, with the GEP acting as a monitoring body for the implementation process. The technical committee will be appointed by the GEP Chair in consultation with the President.
Other full members present included Dr. Thanh-Dam Truong (Institute of Social Studies, The Hague), Dr. Ganesh Thapa (representing Mr Phrang Roy, Director, IFAD Asia and the Pacific Division, Rome), and Khun Kammual (representing Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan, Secretary-General, Office of the Civil Service Commission, Royal Thai Government). Ex officio members present were the President, Professor Jean-Louis Armand; The Provost, Professor Mario Tabucanon; the Registrar, Professor Gothom Arya; the Dean of Students and Community Affairs, Dr Anila Sadananda, and Dr Bernadette Resureccion of Gender and Development Studies. Others in attendance were the Professor Phien, Dean SAT; Professor Paul, Dean SOM; Professor Nurul Amin, Chair Academic Senate; Ms Veena Nagarajan, Assistant Editor of Gender, Development and Technology, and Dr Jonathan Shaw of the AIT Newsletter.
The next meeting of the GEP will be held in late November.
From right, at the Meeting, are: Prof. A. T.M. Amin, Chair of Academic Senate; Prof. Gothom Arya, Registrar; Prof. Mario T. Tabucanon, Provost; Prof. Jean-Louis Armand, AIT President; Prof. Mari Osawa, Chair of Gender Equality Panel;
Dr. Bernadette Resurreccion of Gender and Development Studies Field of Study;
Dr. Anila Sadananda, Dean of Students and Community Affairs; and Dr. Jon Shaw of the AIT Newsletter.