Time to bring an end to ‘PHD’ syndrome
WOMEN make things happen, which is why you call one when you need something done.
That’s the word from the first woman black scientist at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Professor Nokuthula Sibiya, who delivered her inaugural lecture on Wednesday. She celebrated women in science, and women who support each other.
“As women, we have this ‘PHD’ syndrome which means ‘Pull Her Down’. Instead of supporting and uplifting each other, we tend to try to pull each other down. There is a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women. We need to empower each other,” she said.
Before speaking to a crowd of academic delegates about the major health issues facing the country, Sibiya paid tribute to her mother.
Sibiya, who is the executive dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at DUT, said she owed her success to her mother.
Earlier in the programme, the deputy vice-chancellor for the Department of Research, Innovation and Engagement, Professor Sibusiso Moyo, described Sibiya and her supervisor, Professor Nomthandazo Gwele, as “women of steel”.
Sibiya will go on to supervise upcoming PHD graduates, drawing from her wealth of academic research knowledge.
Recently, she was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2018 South African Women in Science Awards – another accolade in a long list that she has received in her stellar career.
Her topic for the lecture was whether the education sector had made progress in transforming the training of health professionals in the system.
According to Sibiya, more than 70% of nurses were female, however, sectors that required major physical work, such as emergency services, were filled with men.
Even at institutions of higher education where she had flourished, males dominated in the top positions.
“The environment favours men. I am a woman, a wife, mother, and some are grandmothers but we are still expected to produce work like men despite having additional responsibilities. We still need to address issues of equity in higher education.”