US aims to empower more Muslim women

The Life: Women have traditionally been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. But the US State Department is hoping to encourage women from Muslim-majority countries to enter the professions through a new initiative.

One of the priorities of Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, is women's empowerment.Above, with a delegation in Washington. Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo

Women have traditionally been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. But a new initiative by the US government aims to encourage more females from Muslim-majority countries to study the topics at an undergraduate level at women's colleges in that country. Women in the programme will pair up with a "sister" from the US and receive additional support from a mentor. Sandra Laney of the NeXXt Scholars Initiative, and a senior adviser at the office of the science and technology in the US, speaks about it here.

What is the NeXXt Scholars Initiative, and why does "NeXXt" have a double "x"?

[We want] to reach an underserved population of women whose families may not be comfortable ... sending their daughters to co-ed institutions, and to get the idea out that we have 49 women's colleges in the United States. This might be an opportunity to reach this population of women, and their families might be more supportive of letting them get that high-quality education, which is really important in the stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] field. The double "x" stands for the chromosomes of women.

So the places would only be at women's colleges?

Yes and we have 38 women's college partners.

Why did the state department launch this?

During President Obama's speech in Cairo, in 2009, he spoke about forging new relationships with Muslim communities. This is a follow-on. One of the things he said was something to the effect of our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons. And one of the secretary of state [Hillary] Clinton's major priorities is women's empowerment. It is very important to make sure that women have equal access to education in the science, technology, engineering and maths fields because that's the future and we want to make sure that women are empowered as well.

How many scholarships are you offering?

It's not a scholarship programme. This is a common misconception. It is a scholars - as in persons of knowledge - programme. It has been set up as a public-private partnership with women's college partners. The colleges retain all of their own admissions and financial aid criteria and decision-making. They do have some level of funding available to students who have a financial need, but in most cases it's not enough to entirely cover the process. Some of the colleges have more to offer in terms of financial assistance if it's needed than others. But students' families will also have to contribute some portion of it.

What would happen if a woman wants to take part but her family cannot afford to support her? Is there any other help you can give those students?

At this point in time we don't have access to any additional funds. We are hoping in the future to develop this and find partners from the private sector which are interested in supporting the programme and women from underprivileged families who can't meet the need gap.

* Gillian Duncan