Dean Alumni, Corporate and International Relations, Punjab Engineering College in association with British Council organised a lecture on "Equality for Women in Science- Why is it slow?" on 8th February, 2018. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Paul Walton, Faculty of Chemistry, University of York, UK. Prof. Vasundhara Singh, Faculty of Chemistry PEC, was the coordinating faculty while Dr. K.K. Gogna, Dean Alumni, Corporate and Intl. Relations and Dr. J.D.Sharma, Coordinator Alumni, Corporate and Intl. Relations were present during the lecture among other faculty members and students.
The primary goal of the lecture was to create awareness about the prevailing issue of gender inequality and to discuss solutions to improve the position of women in today's society. Prof. Paul highlighted the various domains and fields where gender inequality was pervasive at an alarming rate and mentioned that this issue is prevalent even in countries like Norway and Sweden which are known for gender equality. Prof. Paul tried to make the audience realise the fact that sometimes their unconscious actions can be biased and can indirecly lead to gender inequality. He presented several facts, figures and research reports that proved that gender inequality prevailed at a global level. Taking the discussion to the political side, he expressed his concern on how politics can be influential in contributing towards gender inequality and exclaimed that certain political drives have impeded the initiative towards having a society with gender equality. In the end, he implored everyone to work towards bringing a change by elevating the status of women in all sections of society.