Thw second plenary seesion commenced with the theme 'Women's Universities: Present status and Future Agenda'. Honourable Prof. Usha Thakkar presided over the session. The session involved four eminent speakers, Prof. Fumi Kumagai; Prof. Reecca Mbuh; Prof. Regina Ammicht Quinn; Prof. Sunita Zaidi. The first speaker Prof. Fumi Kumagai (Dept. of Sociology, Kyorin University, Tokyo, Japan) focussed on the pressing issue of need to provide education to women. Her presentation was titled 'Higher Education of Japanese Women- Past, Present and Future. She gave an overview of the evolution of women's universities in Japan. With the introduction of Equal Employment Opportunity Law (1986), a dramatic increment in female higher school graduates advancing to higher education was seen. She then acknowledged the role of Japan Women University in training women to take new challenges and broadening their horizons by giving them wide opportunities and also nurturing leadership qualities in them. therefore, she concluded that women universities are expected to assist women to acquire knowledge, skills and abilities for leadership for applying them to the diverse situations they come across in future.

The second speaker, Prof Rebecca Mbuh ( Division of Business Administration, College of Economics and Commerce, Sook Myung Women's University, Seoul, Korea) presented her topic titled 'Role of Women's Universities in Empowering in the 21st century and Beyond'. She emphasised the role of women's universities in empowering the women in various arenas, offer more challenging academic experience leading to more integrative learning; provide more support for success; encourage more student- faculty interaction; strive to foster understanding of self and others. She gave an overview of the 4S of leadership model (Spirit, Service, Skill and Strength) for women's empowerment in the 21st century. She concluded her talk with a time tested adage "If you educate a man, you educate a person but if you educate a woman , you educate the society".

The third speaker, Prof. Regina Ammicht Quinn (International Center for Ethics in the Science and Humanities, Eberhard Karls University,Tubingen,Germany) presented the topic "Identities And Justices in Women Education: An Ethical Explanation".She stated that instead of the endless efforts in empowering women a wide difference still exist in society between men and women as far as moral bindings and political powers are concened .

The fourth topic ' Role of Jamia Milia Islamia University in empowering Women' was presented by Prof. Sunita Zaidi (Head, Dept. of History, Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi).She gave an overview of the efforts of the University in empowering women, highlighting the fact that though Jamia Milia Islamia University is not women centred university yet it is providing the education to the women from very beginning. JMU is involved in providing regular classes to the private students, giving co- education from nursery to higher studies including professional courses, providing wide opportunities to them to make active participation in the extension of their education levels even encouraging them by giving them scholarships. A Balak Mata Center is also established providing vocational training and education to both mother and child. Despite making these efforts by JMU a gap still persists between male and female literary levels.