The BKH-AE Women’s Week, 2006–2015

Abstract

The article describes the activities of the Institute for Catalan Studies commemorating the International Women’s Day, from 2006 to 2012, and the new activities developed by the Barcelona Knowledge Hub of the Academia Europaea (BKH-AE) constituting the BKH-AE Women’s Week, from 2013 to 2015. This Week will be continued in the coming years. Two major changes have revolutionised society and specifically higher education in only one century. Firstly, there has been a rapid expansion of higher education and scientific research throughout the world. Access to higher education has become a common aspiration, and is no longer perceived as the privilege of social elites. Moreover, higher education is increasingly recognised as a social, economic and political driving force for progress. Nowadays, a larger proportion of humanity aspires to education, and higher education is today increasingly regarded as tomorrow’s general education. Secondly, this exceptional opportunity to promote and strengthen the values of science in the service of humanism and peaceful development is partially the consequence of the achievements of women in science during recent decades. By breaking down the barriers posed by earlier cultural norms, women have been able to apply their knowledge and skills to many fields of science and humanities, and their contributions to progress in all of them have been highly significant. [Contrib Sci 11:21-26 (2015)]

Keywords: International Women’s Day lectures · BKH-AE Women’s Week Academia Europaea activities · higher education for women · gender equality