A two-day international leadership summit of IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE), Kerala Section, began here on Friday.
The event marks its 20th anniversary celebrations, and showcases women talents who have been phenomenal successes in engineering, business, arts, or humanitarian causes.
Inaugurating the conference, Aswathy Thirunal Gauri Lakshmi Bayi of the royal family of erstwhile Travancore said Kerala had a long history of walking the talk on women empowerment, even prior to its formation following the State reorganisation. “In 1817, Gowri Parvati Bayi, the regent of erstwhile Travancore, issued the royal rescript for universal education by which Travancore became the first government in the world to promulgate a decree for State-sponsored free and compulsory education 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 being held on the theme ‘Empowerment, Leadership and Equality’. It aimed at motivating and strengthening women entrepreneurs and professionals, and would discuss road maps to successful entrepreneurship models for women, Mini Ulanat, chair, IEEE Kerala, said.
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’.
