Women’s role in economic development vital: US expert

Karachi
Pakistan is an indispensable ally of the US and as such the latter intends to keep a broad engagement with it. Therefore, the US is very keen to see equal or at least equitable participation of women in public and economic life in Pakistan since it is indispensable for the development of the country.
These views were expressed by Ms Melanie Bixby, the executive director of the US-Pakistan Women’s Council, at the US consulate on Wednesday afternoon while speaking to a very compact group of journalists.
She said that the council’s mission was to get more Pakistani women into the workforce and empower them. It operated in three tiers: networking, education and supporting entrepreneurship of women.
According to her, many Pakistani companies had a 50 percent job for women but the number of female employees never exceeded 35 percent.
“The Pak-US alumni network can play a vital role in further emancipation of women since those who have studied at universities in the US would have the requisite contacts to have women appointed in roles commensurate with their training,” Bixby said.
According to her, 78 percent of Pakistan’s female medical graduates were not working. In this regard, she informed that the Pakistan-US Women’s Council, the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America and Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission were collaborating to provide career planning webcasts to facilitate women’s entry into medical practice.
The purpose of her current trip, she said, was to enhance the suppliers’ role.
“We have witnessed a strong inclination on the part of companies to hire women on key posts”, she said and listed Engro Chemicals, Pepsi, Coca Cola, and, Procter and Gamble as the interested companies.
She lauded M/S Packages Ltd, of Lahore, for establishing sections exclusively for women employees and hoped that other Pakistani companies would follow suit. She said

that according to her observation, the vocation women were entering most was education. But now things seemed to be changing and entrepreneurship seemed to be becoming the trend, mainly on account of economic exigencies.
However, Brixby, at the same time made it amply clear that the council’s overwhelming focus would still be higher education because education alone could train women in the craft of entrepreneurship. “Education is a component that is most conducive to economic development,” she said. In this context, she cited a number of women’s education projects with the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the Council.
The US-Pakistan Women’s Council, which seeks to increase women’s economic partnership in Pakistan through entrepreneurship, employment and education, was set up in 2012 as a collaborative effort between the US State Department and the American University. Its growing network extends through both the US and Pakistan.
Under the aegis of the council, American University received a grant from the US embassy to scale up women’s business through a joint certificate training programme to be conducted in cooperation with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Faculty exchanges will promote institutional ties and learning and online modules will multiply the impact throughout Pakistan
To promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for women, the Council and the US embassy brought speakers and participants together with President Obama’s Science Envoy to share strategies and highlight the achievements of Pakistan’s women science students. In 2014, M/S Packages Ltd and the Council launched a summer internship programme for 18 students pursuing a variety of careers, from finance and engineering, to business administration. The programme will continue to provide around 20 women each year with hands-on experience, training and monitoring.