On March 13, 2025, the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) hosted “Research Points the Way Toward Innovations in Women's Education,” a parallel event for the 2025 UN Commission on the Status of Women. This virtual panel discussion among three dynamic experts highlighted the importance of both research and innovation in responding to longstanding and emerging challenges in the education of women and girls around the world.
Panelists included Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D., executive director of the Wellesley Centers for Women from 1985-2010; Pashtana Durrani, Afghan human rights activist and international scholar-in-residence at WCW; and Hauwa Ibrahim, J.D.; S.J.D.; M.L., international human rights attorney and senior international scholar-in-residence at WCW. The conversation was moderated by Georgia Hall, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and interim executive director of WCW.
Bailey discussed her groundbreaking 1992 report “How Schools Shortchange Girls” that challenged the assumption that girls and boys are treated equally in U.S. public schools. The report influenced U.S. federal legislation on programs for girls in science and math, shaped public discourse on gender and education, and led to new community-based programs for girls across the country.
“I think that we always need to keep in mind that perhaps the most important questions we ask in research are those that lead to the next question,” said Bailey. “And we've made progress. But we also, at this point, are in a very difficult worldwide situation, in which misogyny and disrespect and non-inclusion of women is growing in some places rather than receding. The battle is never over. But I do remember how long it sometimes takes to win rights, and it took a very long time in the United States before women had the vote. They just kept at it, and we need to keep at it too.”
Durrani is committed to the long haul when it comes to girls’ education. She founded LEARN Afghanistan, a grassroots organization established to safely and securely educate girls through a distributed network of tablet computers using an offline platform. Through LEARN, she has educated 10,000 girls and boys in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and trained more than 80 teachers in digital literacy.
“We need young girls in school for our economy to develop,” said Durrani. “That's the economy side of it. But apart from that, I also come from a country where healthcare has collapsed…More than 70% of our people go to neighboring countries just for regular healthcare issues. So education doesn't only solve an economic problem. It’s going to solve a social problem. It's going to solve a healthcare problem.”
Ibrahim also discussed how innovative approaches to education can open doors. One of her current initiatives is a summer camp program that brings culturally appropriate STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education to students in dozens of communities throughout Nigeria and other African nations. Her book The Children's Artwork, from 2024, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics' (STEAM) Camps, was published by the University of Rome Press in January 2025. She has seen the power of community in tackling intractable problems.
“We are stronger, we are tougher together,” said Ibrahim. “And I believe that we are just about to start our journey.”
