Although women across the world now have better access to education, with girls often outperforming boys in school, there are still sociocultural and religious barriers to their full participation in society, argued Serra Kirdar, foundation fellow at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, during an October panel at AUC titled “Women as Agents of Change.” Women are now more visible in politics and across professional fields, but “there is much gender stereotyping in [school] curriculums and within cultures,” said Kirdar, editor of the forthcoming book Education in the Arab World. “Numbers are not reflective of reality—women are educated but still are not really represented in all fields of life because there are cultural and traditional barriers where women remain in the background.” Kirdar emphasized that “men and women need to work together to overcome this. We need more women who want to push the limits and men who want to support this.”