Women university leaders call for gender quotas

Women vice-chancellors have formulated strategies for empowering women in higher education that include demands for quota systems, at the sub-forum for the sixth World Women University Presidents Forum held in Zimbabwe from 15-16 August.

The meeting in Harare was the first time that an activity supporting the forum had been held in Africa, since the founding of the group in 2001.

Among the presenters were Liu Jinan, president of the World Women University Presidents Forum, and Hope Sadza, vice-chancellor and co-founder of the Zimbabwe-based Women’s University in Africa.

Others in attendance included: Judith Kinnear, retired former president of Massey University in New Zealand; IN Moutana, vice-chancellor of Vaal University of Technology in South Africa; Yue Sulan, vice-president of Peking university; Rose Tseng, chancellor emeriti of the University of Hawaii at Hilo; and Zhang Lixi, president of China Women’s University.

The forum was held under the theme “Sustainable Development through University Partnerships to Empower Women for Leadership Roles”.

Among the recommendations that emerged were the need to source targeted funding in developing women in scarce areas, such as the natural sciences and information technology.

The forum also touched on the need to adopt international laws and protocols pertaining to women’s empowerment through education, and to create institutions with structures geared towards women’s needs.

“Advocate for quotas for women – especially in areas of administration. Quotas should be in critical areas, gender shift must come from the top. Create e-discussion – create a network on the web where we can discuss challenges and experiences,” reads part of the resolutions.

“There is need for leadership training, exchange of students, researchers, librarians. Must bring men into discussion. If those currently in charge are not part of discussion, nothing will change. We must move towards a results-based framework, for example, gender policy based on research findings.”

In her presentation, Kinnear said female participation was still low in the sciences, technology and engineering. Disparities existed in the lower levels of education and continued through tertiary education.

She said that gender disparity was most prevalent in developing countries, but great strides had been made over the past decade, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sadza said her Women’s University in Africa had responded to some of the challenges faced by women, by constituting 85% female and 15% male enrolments. The university had also come up with a flexible timetable that took into consideration the conflicts between women’s traditional roles, family responsibilities and the demands of education.

Sadza added that in order to support women entering sciences and engineering, her institution had developed a foundation course to increase proficiency in mathematics and English, and was developing a gender centre that would focus on training and research on gender.

She also divulged plans to launch an African chapter of the World Women University Presidents Forum, which would be headquartered in Harare.

Moutana of South Africa spoke of the challenges faced by women leaders in tertiary education. She emphasised the struggles with isolation and alienation that accompany women as they reach higher levels of the career ladder.

The conference agreed there was a need to empower girls, especially those in rural areas. There was a need for universities to reach out to people in rural areas instead of waiting for them to come to the cities for higher education.

The World Women University Presidents Forum was launched in 2001 by the Communication University of China with the aim of pooling the strengths of women university presidents from all over the world, and creating an international platform where they can communicate, collaborate and share new ideas.

Since the year 2001, five forums have been held, attracting more than 600 women university presidents from nearly 60 countries across the world.