Celebrating women of Pakistan

by Noorulain Masood

Photo credits: British Council Pakistan

WOW is usually a term of exclamation, of wonder, of celebration; and that is what the Women of the World (or WOW) festival aims to accomplish. The WOW Karachi is a one day festival, on 1st of May, to spark an open and honest dialogue on the rights and issues of women in Pakistan, celebrate women and girls and discuss and address some of the obstacles they face in achieving their potential. 

Making your work count: it's all about impact

by Amna Akhtar

Not all impact is measurable; the ray system of an impact crater
Photo credit: Wikipedia/ NASA

What is the usefulness of your work? How can it be leveraged to contribute to meaningful and positive change? Do you really think you are helping people? I am often met with questions like these from family, friends, colleagues and just about anyone I attempt to explain my work to. This is not an uncommon situation for researchers who are often called upon to demonstrate the value of their work. The fear behind this is that research products on their own can be inaccessible for many people, and unless researchers are pushed to connect their work to people and practice, they may not care very much about their work making a difference in the world.

Patriarchy and women's work

by Hussain Bux Mallah

'Women's work'-poster from World War II,  Australia 1943
Photo credit: Wikipedia/Australian War Memorial, Accession No ARTV01064

Who knew that simply changing the key respondents of a survey would completely transform the process? In over a decade of field work experience, I have developed a set of best practices for myself and our team to be able to conduct a survey of almost any nature. Little did I know that my experience was limited to only a half of the population. Designing the survey with women as key respondents had some extremely unexpected and interesting implications.