Happy International Women’s Day to every member of the Forman community! All of us have mothers and many of us have spouses and daughters. On this day each year, we take time to especially honor women, recalling the oft-repeated Chinese proverb that “women hold up half the sky”.
Nearly half of all the undergraduates studying at Forman are female, as are nearly two-thirds of our graduate students. Women also assume key leadership roles within a number of faculty departments and in the Forman administration.
In addition, we operate a Day Care Center for the children of our faculty, staff and students; opened a hostel for single female faculty members from outside Lahore; and are now renovating a nearby building designed to accommodate at least 80 female undergraduate students beginning in Fall 2023. We also honor Forman’s status as the first institution of higher learning in what is now Pakistan to admit women and offer degrees to women, having taken this pioneering step back in 1902.
At the same time, we recognize that much still needs to be done to expand opportunities as well as leadership roles for women on our campus, in our country and around the world.
Having participated in International Women’s Day celebrations in countries ranging from Kazakhstan to South Africa and Mongolia to Belgium, it is now an honor and privilege to mark this day in Pakistan, acknowledging with thanks and appreciating the work, intelligence, passion, consistency, wisdom and love displayed by the women in our lives, both on this day and throughout the year.
Happy International Women’s Day to all!
Jonathan Addleton,
Rector
