Universities to tackle gender disparity at all levels

THE country’s vice-chancellor’s organisation, Universities South Africa (USAF), has broadened its investigation into gender disparities at tertiary institutions, looking not only at barriers at the upper echelons, but obstacles at the bottom end of the rung.

“We expanded the scope of the study, investigating not just the higher ranks, but the lower end with the idea to look beyond vice-chancellor level but the pipeline,” said Professor Ahmed Bawa, USAF chief executive officer.

Members comprise the heads of the country’s 26 tertiary education institutions. Only four women hold vice-chancellor positions at universities in South Africa: Mamokgethi Phakeng, who became vice-chancellor at the University of Cape Town on July 1; Professor Thoko Mayekiso, vice-chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga; Dr Sibongile Muthwa, who was appointed head of the Nelson Mandela University in the Eastern Cape in October 2017; and Professor Xoliswa Mtose, who is in the hot seat at the University of Zululand.

The fifth female vice-chancellor, Professor Cheryl de la Rey, has left the University of Pretoria to assume a similar role at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury in February next year.

Bawa said the gap must begin to represent itself in the staff structures of universities. And indeed, there were more women than men at lecturer level.

“However, we are not seeing the same trend at the senior levels. And this clearly must be an area of investigation,” he said.

The issue of gender at universities came under the spotlight after businesswoman Judy Dlamini assumed the chancellor’s role at the University of the Witwatersrand, the first woman to hold the role in the university’s 96-year history on December 1.

While only four women occupy the vice-chancellor’s seat, there are nine female chancellors. Sixteen men occupy the chancellor roles at universities in the country.

The post at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University is vacant after the death of its chancellor, minister of environmental affairs Edna Molewa, on September 22.

Men still call the shots in the ivory towers of learning at universities, according to Mamokgethi Phakeng, the University of Cape Town vice-chancellor.

She told The Sunday Independent that leadership around the world still appeared comfortable with a male at the helm while women leaders were subjected to intense scrutiny.

While women are struggling to break through the glass ceiling, there had been transformation on another level, whereas universities were once led by “pale males”.

Currently, only three white men are leading higher education institutions in the country: Lourens van Staden at Walter Sisulu University, Professor Henk de Jager at the Central University of Technology and Professor Christopher De Beer at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.