Seeing a Bright Future for Women's Universities: UK Education Expert

Carma Elliot, director of the British Council in China [File Photo]

Editor's Note:

This golden fall season welcomes the 20th anniversary of the 1995 World Conference on Women, which has been marked with various conventions and celebrations. Many feel that there is much cause for optimism over the elevation of women's role across the world. Among the events, the Second International Women's University Presidents' Forum and Symposium was held from October 13-14 at Beijing Conference Center.

During the two-day conference, presidents from women's universities home and abroad and female officials from education sectors exchanged views and aired suggestions for the transformation and development of women's universities. Women of China (WOC) reporter Wang Xiaonan had a chance to talk with Carma Elliot (Elliot), director of the British Council in China on women's role in China-UK people-to-people exchanges and the merits and weaknesses of women's schools in the UK.

WOC: 2015 marks the first ever China-UK Year of Cultural Exchange. What do you think of women's roles in promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges?

Elliot: Personally, when looking into any area of cultural exchange about building understanding between the people of the two countries, it has to be relevant with everybody, with all men, women, boys and girls included.

Women in the UK have actually been planning programs for this significant year of cultural exchange. We look to project the diversity of the UK through different art forms. It's interesting for us to communicate with the Ministry of Culture of China regarding how they project the colorful culture of their country for this remarkable year.

In September, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong co-hosted the third China-UK High-level People-to-People Dialogue together with UK Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt in London from September 14-20. She asked whether we would do more for women as part of people-to-people exchanges. 

In recent years, we have been mainstreaming gender issues and women's issues and we have witnessed practical results.

In the British embassy here in Beijing, we have a female ambassador, part of whose job is largely to promote the position of women and do what she can in her personal initiatives to further the engagement of women of China and the UK.

This year is a landmark year for the development of UK-China ties. Next week Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan will pay a state visit to the UK and be received by our Queen. This happens every 10 years. China-UK bilateral cooperation over the past decade was very productive and fruitful. And I think 2015 will be the beginning of a golden period in their bilateral relations.

WOC: Could you talk about women's schools in the UK? As is well known, women's schools in your country have an established reputation in the world for producing many female elites. So what are their prominent advantages?

Elliot: The education system for women has developed in the UK and has been very supportive of girls from elementary schools to institutions of higher learning. Girls have relatively easy access to a broad range of subjects and curricula. Women are achieving very well in their studies and actually do better than men in terms of results. Students in women's schools got more A-levels than their counterparts in mixed schools, and single-sex education for girls yields better outcomes than in single-sex schools for boys.

Actually it's only around 100 years since colleges and universities in the UK really opened up to women. Although our women's education is not by any means perfect, it is a very equal and fair system.

Since girls are higher achievers in schools, one critical challenge in our education system is how to help boys achieve the same accomplishments as girls.

Furthermore, there has long been a conundrum in this somewhat mature system. A stereotyped idea has been lingering on what subjects and careers young girls should choose. An experiment was once carried out in a classroom of 6-year-olds. When facing a group of parents, children tend to think women are hairdressers or waitresses while men are bankers or lawyers. We can see that kids have already developed such a prejudiced perception at the young age of 6! This is a challenge for many countries and we need to make sure that it will not happen again.

Therefore we are making efforts to convince parents that girls fit in a great many subjects which have long been deemed as boys' fields exclusively, particularly in mathematics, science, technology and engineering. People should keep their horizons broad because girls now have plenty of education tools at their disposal.

WOC: Do you have any suggestions for this perennial problem for it has already been deeply rooted in people's mind for centuries?

Elliot: Yes. There is an ongoing campaign in the UK called "Inspiring Women" aimed to help women achieve more within their careers. The organizers of the program go into schools and talk with young girls just to give them an idea about the careers they might aim for. People won't say "You can't do this!" but you need to know what it is you can do, as well.

For example, you may encourage a senior female scientist to go into classrooms and tell girls that they are also able to become Nobel Prize winners. We are also looking to bring that initiative to China. In fact, China has many inspiring women. China's first medicine Nobel laureate Tu Youyou is a case in point that enjoys great popularity lately. They are wonderful paragons for young girls.

WOC: The UK has seen booming development of women's universities since the 1960s when the women's movement was in full swing, but now there's a decline in the number all over the world. What do you think of this phenomenon? Are you still optimistic about the future of women's higher education institutions?

Elliot: It's true that we are suffering from a falling number of women's universities, but there has been a kind of consolidation given the mergers and the establishment of women's colleges within certain universities. Many higher institutions attach importance to creating opportunities for collaboration between sexes.

Generally speaking, wider integration will make both sexes recognized and explore much more values in themselves. For individuals, there are also edges because there are different viewpoints and different ways of working, thinking, approaches to doing things. Active debate and discussion from both sexes conduces to broadening students' mind in the classroom, which is quite important.

(Women of China)