Women Development Centre (WDC) is an initiative of the Women Development Department (WDD) under the Government of Punjab’s ADP Scheme. The Centre was established at the University of Home Economics in November 2021 following the signing of an MoU between the University of Home Economics and the Women Development Department, Punjab.
The main aim of the WDC is to equip young women in the following areas:
a) CV Making
b) Job Hunting
c) Web Development
d) Report Writing
e) Legal Rights Awareness
f) Interview Technique
g) Career Planning & Professional Development
h) Research Activities; etc.
Profile of In-charge WDC, UHE:
Dr. Iram Rubab is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies. She also holds the offices of In-charge Student Affairs and In-charge Women Development Centre at UHE. Prior to this, she taught at the University of Management and Technology for six years, where she was also chairing the Department of Sociology. She got her Ph.D. in Gender Studies from the University of Punjab in 2019 and graduated top of her class in her Master’s and MPhil in the same. Dr. Rubab is playing an instrumental role in setting up the Gender Studies Degree at UHE, building on her experience in curriculum development at Gender Studies and Sociology Departments (including MPhil and Ph.D. programs) at UMT and as a member of the National Curriculum Revision Committee (NCRC) of HEC. In a similar vein, she also regularly contributes as a member of various boards of studies, including at LCWU, FCCU, and UMT.
In terms of research, she is focused on women’s rights in Pakistan, particularly in the domains of law, feminist research methods, and socio-cultural empowerment. Recently, her book chapter (‘Women’s experiences of Criminal Justice in Pursuit of Inheritance: Voices from Pakistan’) appeared in The Routledge Handbook of Women’s Experiences of Criminal Justice (Eds. Masson and Booth, 2022). She has also vastly published in other national and international journals and is on the review committees for the Pakistan Journal of Women Studies, and Gender and Development Journal among others. Dr. Rubab is an HEC-approved supervisor and is currently co-supervising a Ph.D. thesis at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan; she also served as an informal mentor during data collection for a Ph.D. student in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney (July 2017-July 2018).
Additionally, Dr. Rubab is particularly focused on enhancing industry linkages. She worked as a Gender Specialist with CHRS for over eight years and brings this field expertise in supplementing student learning and research-driven education.