Gender mainstreaming at higher education institutions

On 16-18 September, the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimbabwe hosted a conference themed around gender mainstreaming at higher education institutions beyond 2015. The participants agreed that, while countries have ratified regional and international agreements on gender equality, a lot remains to be done to achieve it at institutional level and in practice.

The predominant issue raised at the event was the pressures of a culture where marriage and child bearing are celebrated as the biggest achievement, while the attainment of higher education is just an ‘added value’. Furthermore, in most universities in Africa, gender policies are discreet or non-existent. In some cases where affirmative action is introduced, the challenge is not to compromise on quality, which should remain a priority for the universities.

Existing studies of African higher educational institutions show that there is a sizable gender gap, especially at a higher level of career progression. The patriarchal society context shows that the male body and the female body bear cultural meanings and representations that reflect power relations within society, according to Dr Ochieng from Mount Kenya University. In response to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), institutions of higher education throughout the world embraced a new and broader agenda for equal opportunities between women and men. The present conference provided a forum for discussion of gender mainstreaming implementation in the African university context. 

Gender mainstreaming is a systematic inclusion of both women’s and men’s concerns, experiences and needs. It is a process of consistently incorporating sensitivity to gender differences in governance, decision-making, policy, needs analysis, institutional offices and mechanisms, planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in institutions so as to create an organisation that is gender equitable. Gender mainstreaming promises to bring a gender dimension into all higher education policies.

In her presentation, Dr Mpofu from the University of Lupane stressed that while there is no universal approach, effective gender mainstreaming should be context- and content- oriented. This means a much more qualitative analysis over and beyond the quantitative presentation. Dealing with context and content implies that Gender analysis, profiling and auditing be a pre-requisites. Profiling generally provides a quantitative picture of the status of men and women in the employment circle at university. Gender analysis is an essential first step of collecting and analysing sex-disaggregated information in order to understand gender differences and how these differences may have an effect on policies' effectiveness. Gender audit is an evaluation process aimed at figuring out whether set policies or interventions are doing that which they are meant to be doing. It is an Institution’s self-assessment, monitoring and evaluation of interventions with the broad aim diagnosis and transformation.

Dr Mpofu’s recommendation was the establishment of a Gender Mainstreaming Committee and a Gender Centre or Institute. The mandate of such centres/institutes will be directed at promoting gender mainstreaming through curricula, research and career development as well as fostering gender awareness in the university through mass media, public lectures, workshops and conferences. She concluded by stating that while conceptual significance of gender mainstreaming cannot be undermined, the application of the process for it to be effective and meaningful needs to be localised.

Other issues were discussed, ranging from the lack of implementation of existing policies, the lack of resources or limited access to gender resources, the inactivity of gender committees, the lack of females in sciences, discrimination, harassment and unequal working environment, getting buy-in for gender mainstreaming from all members of institution, and much more.

The overall conclusion from the conference was that HEIs are well placed to change the existing inequalities and traditional mind-set in the society on gender roles through developing gender sensitive curriculum, affirmative action, providing role models, etc., all resulting from the adoption of gender mainstreaming in higher education.

The proceedings of the conference will be soon made available on the NUST website.

For more on the ACU's work on gender issues, please visit the Gender Programme webpage. For any questions or requests, please contact [email protected]