RAWALPINDI, Jan 7: The West once again looks towards the East for the ideas to reinvigorate the crusade against the ever prevalent gender discrimination against women, particularly in education sector.

The idea of separate women universities has fascinated the visiting Vice Chancellor (VC) of Sweden University Dr Ingerd Palmer and Dr Kerstin Lagerstorm from Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who came here to participate in an education workshop at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU).

Talking to Dawn, the longest serving VC in Sweden said separate educational institutes provided women a place where they could nurture their potentials at their best. She said Pakistan came up with the idea primarily to accommodate girl students as their parents showed reluctance in sending them to coeducation institutes. She said exclusive women institutes were actually more worthwhile than the combined universities.

She said coeducation system prevailed in all Swedish universities. The concept of separate institutes for women is alien to the Swedish people, but “we will go back and canvass for such an institute,” Dr Palmer said. “We anticipate strong resistance from our male counterparts in this regard but our resolution will bear the fruit,” she added.

Dr Lagerstorm said a separate women university would challenge the whole social structure in her country. She said their experience of IDAS, a consultative body formed by Swedish women in 2000 for identification, development, advancement and support of women issues in higher education institutes, had resulted in complete success. She said they would advocate the cause of separate institutes for women vigorously for better results.

“Before we started our struggle under IDAS, there were only 9 per cent women VCs in all Swedish universities, and today they are 40 per cent of total number of VCs in the country,” she said.