Female university academics still face a formidable glass ceiling, according to data the Mail & Guardian has collected over the past month.
Despite the high priority government policy places on gender equity, tertiary education remains an overwhelmingly male-dominated terrain.
Ten universities responded to the M&G’s request to all 21 universities for data showing how many academics are employed at each level, and how many of these are women.
The universities of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Pretoria, North West, Zululand, Potchefstroom, Natal, Durban-Westville and Rhodes share a similar pattern: relatively high percentages of women occupy lower ranks in the academic hierarchy, but the figures tail off sharply further up the hierarchy (see table).
Women account for between 30% and 40% of all full-time academic staff at these universities. At the lower levels of lecturer and junior lecturer they amount to about 40% of staff — and more than half in some cases (Wits, North West, Potch, Natal and UCT).
But the picture changes drastically at the other end of the scale. Only about 10% of members of senates, which are universities’ most senior academic bodies, are women, though the Durban-Westville senate boasts a female presence of nearly 30% and Rhodes of nearly 20%. The percentages of women in senior ranks such as professor, head of department (or school) and dean are also low.
“Gender equity has become the forgotten equity,” says Professor Margaret Orr, director of the Centre of University Learning, Teaching and Development at Wits University. “It has become a secondary issue, playing second fiddle to race transformation. The latter overshadowed gender transformation in the past — and that was maybe appropriate. But women too have been marginalised in the workplace, and now the time has come to refocus on women’s issues.”
Women are a designated group in equity legislation, points out Professor Amanda Gouws, chairperson of the Women’s Forum at Stellenbosch University. In 1996 the former minister of education, Sibusiso Bengu, appointed a gender-equity task team that included Gouws.
“The team made many recommendations, but very few have been implemented,” Gouws says. “One of these was that the national Department of Education’s gender equity unit be headed by an appointment at director level. But it’s not — the head is a deputy director — and nothing comes out of that unit.
“We also recommended that women be promoted into administrative and management positions, but these recommendations were not heeded. There’s no gender equity plan, either in individual institutions or in the government.”
Not so, says Nasima Badsha, Deputy Director General for higher education in the national Department of Education. “Gender equity remains a high priority. In terms of the National Plan for Higher Education [which details a radical transformation of the tertiary sector and was released in March], institutions are urged to address this important area.”
Badsha does, however, pinpoint worrying areas. “While strides have been made in improving access for women students to higher education, there are concerns around lack of gender equity in staff — especially at higher levels. It’s problematic that we have a body of researchers in tertiary institutions who are ageing white males. We must attract more blacks and women into the system.
“About half the enrolments at university undergraduate level are women, but they are very under-represented in postgraduate studies — especially in fields such as engineering and technology. Something is happening there: we need to retain women at postgraduate levels.
“Institutions should focus on recruiting and retaining women via mechanisms such as targeted scholarships, mentorship programmes and development posts at junior levels, and some are doing this. But this needs the commitment of senior management.”
Sexual harassment is an example of what works against women in higher education, Gouws says. She cites the case of a lecturer at a university in the Western Cape who was well known for repeated harassment of women students, found guilty by a disciplinary hearing, but not dismissed from the university. “This sent a bad message to women students and staff,” Gouws says.
Stellenbosch instituted a sexual harassment policy with formal grievance procedures only two years ago, Gouws says. Unisa, in the media spotlight after charges of sexual harassment Orr brought against council chairperson McCaps Motimele, has still not completed its harassment policy two years down the line, says Lisa Vetten, gender coordinator at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
Fewer than a third of all tertiary institutions have such a policy, Vetten says.