RUW 3rd Conference on Women and Society: Women and 4th Industrial Revolution

31,Mar 2020

RUW 3rd Conference on Women and Society: Women and 4th Industrial Revolution 

The worldwide growing speed towards a more digitised society and economy is predicting that we are at the beginning of a technological revolution that will fundamentally change the way we live and work. The changes brought by the 4th Industrial Revolution will bring changes in power, knowledge, and shifts in wealth. It will create enormous challenges and opportunities. New jobs will be created, new sectors, new products, new services, and new markets. By developing digital platforms, workers will be able to work from home using their working time as they wish, offering their work to different countries. This flexibility in work should be accompanied by the growing need for education, training and development of new skills and competences to meet the challenges of the new world of work. Also, this era of digitisation will strengthen the great inequality that exists today in a world where many states and regions have not yet passed through the second and/or the third industrial revolution. In this regard, it is crucial to analyse the problems arising from the 4th Industrial Revolution as well as emerging opportunities, especially regarding the existing gender inequality; because, these developments will surely have a strong impact on the global population, especially on women who represent 52% of the population. Technology has brought countless opportunities across the world in terms of progress in every possible field but is also responsible for more job destructions than globalisation itself. 

The 4th industrial revolution has deeply transformed our society including the role played by women with interesting variations. Women are actively participating in higher education and undertaking scientific research, 

leading to women advancement globally and in the Kingdom of Bahrain.  The conference aims to highlight how the accelerating pace of technological change affects what roles women can play in the economy, politics, and society. The conference will also explore the ways to enhance the culture of STEM education in women so that these young women can use technology and entrepreneurship to create economic opportunities. The goal is to discover and share methods countries might deploy in order for women to lead rather than follow this revolution. Further, the contributions made by Bahraini women leading to women advancement will also be explored.

Royal University for Women (RUW) is the first private Higher Education Council accredited, ASEC accredited international university in the Kingdom of Bahrain that is dedicated solely to educating women. This is the third biennial event that RUW will hold following the successful 2016 and 2018 Conferences on Women and Society, attended by more than 300 delegates from over 15 countries where more than 100 research papers were presented. Student poster presentations were a highlight of the event and served to stimulate a research culture among the region’s youth.

The conference is supported by gLAWcal - Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom), the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Interest Group on International Environmental Law, the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Interest Group on Intellectual Property Law.