OPINION | Higher education should place women at the centre of academic leadership

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Education activist Hendrick Makaneta has called on government to take practical steps to appoint more women as vice-chancellors in the country’s twenty-six universities.

“Women are the majority in the country and as such they should be represented in senior positions. It cannot be correct that only 15% of vice-chancellors in South Africa are women,” Makaneta said.

Education activist Hendrick Makaneta writes…

Higher education continues to be dominated by men even though more women have obtained their doctorates in the last few years.

Minister Dr Blade Nzimande should insist that 50% of vice-chancellors in South Africa must be women. Unless a radical approach is taken, we will continue to have fewer women in the higher education space.

As if the slow pace of transformation is not enough, there seems to be a well-orchestrated and growing onslaught against the few women vice-chancellors that we have in the country.

Not long ago, 56-year-old Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng was replaced by a 70-year-old male pensioner at the University of Cape Town. With the recent announcement by Dr Nzimande that UNISA may be put under administration, a male pensioner may replace another female vice-chancellor just like it happened at UCT.

We are not saying that wrongdoing, if there is any, should not be addressed. But in the process of addressing such matters, we should not forget to continuously place women at the centre of academic leadership. Where women have erred, we should strive to correct them with a view to ensure that they are not lost to the system.

We have a duty as society to support the feminist theory as doing so is in the best interest of society.

I will be writing to the Commission for Gender Equality to ask why women are still underrepresented in universities despite the fact that there are many qualifying female professors in the country.