Date: 03/08/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: World at UCT Festival
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, AT THE WORLD AT UCT FESTIVAL, University of Cape Town, 3 August 2004
WOMEN AND EMPOWERMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Chairperson
Staff and Students of the University
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
It gives me great pleasure to be with you this afternoon to participate in the 'World at UCT Festival'. I must congratulate the International Academic Programmes Office for organising the week of social, cultural, sporting and political events, which seek to celebrate diversity at UCT.
The subject of gender equity and the empowerment of women in the higher education sector are important focal points for a country in transition to full democracy. The timing of this address is particularly fortuitous as we are poised to celebrate National Women's Day, next week on the 9th of August. National Women's Day affords us the opportunity to celebrate the advances that women have made in our country over the past years and more especially in the first decade of democracy.
It is also an occasion to commemorate and remember the struggles and sacrifices of the many women who fought for the freedoms and rights that we today enjoy and cherish. As we mark Women's Day, I also hope that we will use the occasion to reflect on the challenges that lie ahead to improve the quality of life for girls and women in our country.
In the spirit of Women's Day, I would like to salute the memory of Ethel de Keyser, who recently died in London at the age of 77, after a lifetime of commitment to the struggle for freedom. She lived in exile in Britain from the early 1960s, where she headed the International Defence and Aid Fund, which was so important in raising funds to pay defence lawyers in political trials and to support the families of political prisoners.
But she will probably be best remembered for her unstinting work in the Cannon Collins Educational Trust, raising money for scholarships to enable South Africans to study at universities in Britain and after 1990 within South Africa. She leaves a wonderful legacy of having contributed to the education of many women and men who now hold leading positions in government, academia, business and civil society.
Women in higher education: the facts
The challenge for South Africa remains the full empowerment of all in our country and more particularly the empowerment of women in all aspects and institutions. Every higher education institution should devote attention to the task of ensuring gender equity, because it is within these walls that the solutions to our major challenges will be formulated The position of women in higher education reveals fascinating features of ongoing problems and real indicators of positive change. Undoubtedly, we have made great strides in the transformation of our higher education institutions with respect to the gender and racial composition of the student body.
Just over 50% of the students in higher education are women and close on 75% are black students.
Also of significance is the growing internationalisation of the student body. Approximately 40 000 international students are enrolled for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in public higher education institutions in South Africa, the majority coming from our neighbours in SADC. These students bring a rich diversity to our universities and technikons.
While the overall composition of the student body is changing to be much more reflective of the demographic profile of society more broadly, there is no room for complacency, since women, and particularly black women, remain under-represented in a number of key areas of study such as, science, engineering and technology and in postgraduate studies more generally.
Success rates of black students also remain lower than that of their white counterparts.
Much work still needs to be done to address the access and success of women in higher education studies. A range of interventions is required, including improved career guidance at school level and the active recruitment of women, scholarship support, academic development and mentorship.
My Department, with financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, has established an undergraduate scholarship programme to support women in fields of study where they are traditionally underrepresented, including science, engineering, technology, actuarial science and science education.
Two cohorts of approximately 50 students each have been recruited from public schools around the country, including the Dinaledi schools that have been earmarked for improved provision of maths and science teaching and learning.
Students are selected on the basis of academic merit and must be in the top 5% of their matric class. I am aware that there are currently 26 scholarship recipients studying at UCT.
Alongside the scholarship programme, we are also undertaking research to track the progress of these students and to identify the factors that are impacting on their academic success. We hope that this research will help to inform best practice, especially with respect to the recruitment and support of women students in higher education.
I must also acknowledge the work that is being done by the National Research Foundation (NRF), amongst others, to provide scholarship and bursary support to women in postgraduate studies.
Regrettably, however, the retention of women and black people in the academy remains a key challenge for higher education. Our figures for 2003 indicate that women make up 41% of all permanent academic staff in universities and technikons. However, the overall figure masks considerable inequalities. While women make up more than 50% of staff at lecturer level and below, only 17% of staff at the level of Professor are women.
Furthermore, the bulk of research in South Africa continues to be undertaken by white men and particularly ageing white men. This must be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency, if we are to produce the next generation of black and women intellectuals.
Barriers to the advancement of women
What holds women back? A range of barriers to the advancement of women in the academy are identified in the international literature, including the following:
* Women find it harder to enter the supportive networks that provide access to mentoring and research opportunities;
* Women's research productivity, particularly in the early years of their careers, may be restricted by childcare demands;
* Women tend to over-perform in the areas of teaching, student support, and administration, to the detriment of their research productivity;
* Women are less likely to be appointed or promoted at all levels;
* In comparison with male graduates, women graduates are less attracted to entering academe, with evidence that they drop out more often earlier in their careers.
While I have little doubt that these factors are amongst those influencing the advancement of women academics in our country, I believe that there is a need for research rooted in our own context and experience. Such research should inform strategies at an institutional and systemic level to improve gender equity in staffing in our higher education institutions.
At the level of the senior managements of our universities and technikons, we must acknowledge the trail -blazing role of our women leaders, such as Dr Mamphela Ramphele, who was not only the first woman but also the first black Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. Brenda Gourlay moved from being the Vice-Chancellor of the (former) University of Natal to head the Open University in Britain, one of the largest distance universities in the world. Professor Connie Mokadi, as Vice-Chancellor of the Technikon Witwatersrand has paved the way for women in the technikon sector which has always been very male dominated.
While we salute these women, much still needs to be done to groom women for senior management positions. Women currently make up only 26% of Executive and senior Managerial posts in our higher education institutions. In this regard, I would like to acknowledge the work being done, especially in the Western Cape, by HERS-SA to support the development of women leadership in higher education. I am also pleased to hear that the HERS-SA programmes are now also including participants from the rest of the Continent.
In talking about leadership in higher education, I must include leadership at all levels, including students and staff unions. I continue to be troubled by the lack of women in the leadership of SRCs and student organisations more generally. I hope that as part of supporting the development of student leadership in our universities, particular emphasis can be placed on nurturing young women to take the reins of student structures.
I am glad to say that we have come a long way in terms of the institutionalisation of policies and practices to support gender equity in higher education. Largely as a result of hard fought battles in the 1980s and early 1990s, all higher education institutions have policies in place to address, among others, sexual harassment and violence against women staff and students. However, the proper implementation of policies and procedures to ensure that our universities and technikons are safe and nurturing places for women staff and students still requires much work and constant vigilance on the part of all of us.
Further Challenges
The task of ensuring effective achievements in eroding gender inequality requires a focus that goes beyond numbers of female participants and fields of study. It must include the formulation of a wide set of responses that will serve as strategies that fundamentally alter the social frameworks we have inherited; those that cause us to address equity.
All accept that gender is a social construct, but few academic programmes integrate a critical engagement with this construct in their teaching and research. Women's Studies programmes are often neglected and under-funded and are not viewed as a primary tool of social analysis.
Many observers of development in our society would probably agree that the failure of development programmes is probably strongly linked to the exclusion of women from such initiatives. Women have often been marginalised, even by those seeking to change their lives.
Unfortunately, very little research has been done in this area and it may be useful for this institution to begin leading the way.
It is also vital for policy makers to realise that socio-economic imperatives should not be used to compel all women to pursue science, commerce, and technology in higher education. Every society should ensure it develops ability in literature, sociology, philosophy, languages and a range of other fields that contribute to intellectual enrichment in a society. Attention should also be paid to ensuring that all graduates are educated about unfair discrimination and its effects on a society's progress. A full curriculum of this kind will lead to real success in eroding gender inequality.
Close
Clearly then, there can be little doubt that the barriers to the full and equitable involvement and participation of women in higher education are many and complex. As indicated by the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) in 1996:
"There are indications that the climate at some South African campuses is not always conducive to the social accommodation and integration of a diversity of groups. Experiences by female and black students and staff in particular suggest that conditions at institutions do not facilitate the full participation of members of all social categories and groups".
Since then, many institutions have recognised that their traditional structures and practices may not be supportive of more diverse student and staff populations and have begun to re-examine their institutional cultures and approaches in the context of a democratic South Africa. While there has been some progress, albeit uneven, there is much still to be done.
The magnitude of the task is such that it cannot be left to any one party. It cannot be driven by university councils and managements alone but requires the full commitment and involvement of all key stakeholders in higher education institutions, including student and staff structures. It also requires support at the systemic level, by way of the necessary enabling policy frameworks. In the course of the coming period, I will be paying particular attention to ensure that national policy frameworks are indeed responsive to gender equity imperatives.
I thank you for inviting me to join you this afternoon and wish you every success for the rest of the festival programme.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
3 August 2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: World at UCT Festival
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, AT THE WORLD AT UCT FESTIVAL, University of Cape Town, 3 August 2004
WOMEN AND EMPOWERMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Chairperson
Staff and Students of the University
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
It gives me great pleasure to be with you this afternoon to participate in the 'World at UCT Festival'. I must congratulate the International Academic Programmes Office for organising the week of social, cultural, sporting and political events, which seek to celebrate diversity at UCT.
The subject of gender equity and the empowerment of women in the higher education sector are important focal points for a country in transition to full democracy. The timing of this address is particularly fortuitous as we are poised to celebrate National Women's Day, next week on the 9th of August. National Women's Day affords us the opportunity to celebrate the advances that women have made in our country over the past years and more especially in the first decade of democracy.
It is also an occasion to commemorate and remember the struggles and sacrifices of the many women who fought for the freedoms and rights that we today enjoy and cherish. As we mark Women's Day, I also hope that we will use the occasion to reflect on the challenges that lie ahead to improve the quality of life for girls and women in our country.
In the spirit of Women's Day, I would like to salute the memory of Ethel de Keyser, who recently died in London at the age of 77, after a lifetime of commitment to the struggle for freedom. She lived in exile in Britain from the early 1960s, where she headed the International Defence and Aid Fund, which was so important in raising funds to pay defence lawyers in political trials and to support the families of political prisoners.
But she will probably be best remembered for her unstinting work in the Cannon Collins Educational Trust, raising money for scholarships to enable South Africans to study at universities in Britain and after 1990 within South Africa. She leaves a wonderful legacy of having contributed to the education of many women and men who now hold leading positions in government, academia, business and civil society.
Women in higher education: the facts
The challenge for South Africa remains the full empowerment of all in our country and more particularly the empowerment of women in all aspects and institutions. Every higher education institution should devote attention to the task of ensuring gender equity, because it is within these walls that the solutions to our major challenges will be formulated The position of women in higher education reveals fascinating features of ongoing problems and real indicators of positive change. Undoubtedly, we have made great strides in the transformation of our higher education institutions with respect to the gender and racial composition of the student body.
Just over 50% of the students in higher education are women and close on 75% are black students.
Also of significance is the growing internationalisation of the student body. Approximately 40 000 international students are enrolled for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in public higher education institutions in South Africa, the majority coming from our neighbours in SADC. These students bring a rich diversity to our universities and technikons.
While the overall composition of the student body is changing to be much more reflective of the demographic profile of society more broadly, there is no room for complacency, since women, and particularly black women, remain under-represented in a number of key areas of study such as, science, engineering and technology and in postgraduate studies more generally.
Success rates of black students also remain lower than that of their white counterparts.
Much work still needs to be done to address the access and success of women in higher education studies. A range of interventions is required, including improved career guidance at school level and the active recruitment of women, scholarship support, academic development and mentorship.
My Department, with financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, has established an undergraduate scholarship programme to support women in fields of study where they are traditionally underrepresented, including science, engineering, technology, actuarial science and science education.
Two cohorts of approximately 50 students each have been recruited from public schools around the country, including the Dinaledi schools that have been earmarked for improved provision of maths and science teaching and learning.
Students are selected on the basis of academic merit and must be in the top 5% of their matric class. I am aware that there are currently 26 scholarship recipients studying at UCT.
Alongside the scholarship programme, we are also undertaking research to track the progress of these students and to identify the factors that are impacting on their academic success. We hope that this research will help to inform best practice, especially with respect to the recruitment and support of women students in higher education.
I must also acknowledge the work that is being done by the National Research Foundation (NRF), amongst others, to provide scholarship and bursary support to women in postgraduate studies.
Regrettably, however, the retention of women and black people in the academy remains a key challenge for higher education. Our figures for 2003 indicate that women make up 41% of all permanent academic staff in universities and technikons. However, the overall figure masks considerable inequalities. While women make up more than 50% of staff at lecturer level and below, only 17% of staff at the level of Professor are women.
Furthermore, the bulk of research in South Africa continues to be undertaken by white men and particularly ageing white men. This must be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency, if we are to produce the next generation of black and women intellectuals.
Barriers to the advancement of women
What holds women back? A range of barriers to the advancement of women in the academy are identified in the international literature, including the following:
* Women find it harder to enter the supportive networks that provide access to mentoring and research opportunities;
* Women's research productivity, particularly in the early years of their careers, may be restricted by childcare demands;
* Women tend to over-perform in the areas of teaching, student support, and administration, to the detriment of their research productivity;
* Women are less likely to be appointed or promoted at all levels;
* In comparison with male graduates, women graduates are less attracted to entering academe, with evidence that they drop out more often earlier in their careers.
While I have little doubt that these factors are amongst those influencing the advancement of women academics in our country, I believe that there is a need for research rooted in our own context and experience. Such research should inform strategies at an institutional and systemic level to improve gender equity in staffing in our higher education institutions.
At the level of the senior managements of our universities and technikons, we must acknowledge the trail -blazing role of our women leaders, such as Dr Mamphela Ramphele, who was not only the first woman but also the first black Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. Brenda Gourlay moved from being the Vice-Chancellor of the (former) University of Natal to head the Open University in Britain, one of the largest distance universities in the world. Professor Connie Mokadi, as Vice-Chancellor of the Technikon Witwatersrand has paved the way for women in the technikon sector which has always been very male dominated.
While we salute these women, much still needs to be done to groom women for senior management positions. Women currently make up only 26% of Executive and senior Managerial posts in our higher education institutions. In this regard, I would like to acknowledge the work being done, especially in the Western Cape, by HERS-SA to support the development of women leadership in higher education. I am also pleased to hear that the HERS-SA programmes are now also including participants from the rest of the Continent.
In talking about leadership in higher education, I must include leadership at all levels, including students and staff unions. I continue to be troubled by the lack of women in the leadership of SRCs and student organisations more generally. I hope that as part of supporting the development of student leadership in our universities, particular emphasis can be placed on nurturing young women to take the reins of student structures.
I am glad to say that we have come a long way in terms of the institutionalisation of policies and practices to support gender equity in higher education. Largely as a result of hard fought battles in the 1980s and early 1990s, all higher education institutions have policies in place to address, among others, sexual harassment and violence against women staff and students. However, the proper implementation of policies and procedures to ensure that our universities and technikons are safe and nurturing places for women staff and students still requires much work and constant vigilance on the part of all of us.
Further Challenges
The task of ensuring effective achievements in eroding gender inequality requires a focus that goes beyond numbers of female participants and fields of study. It must include the formulation of a wide set of responses that will serve as strategies that fundamentally alter the social frameworks we have inherited; those that cause us to address equity.
All accept that gender is a social construct, but few academic programmes integrate a critical engagement with this construct in their teaching and research. Women's Studies programmes are often neglected and under-funded and are not viewed as a primary tool of social analysis.
Many observers of development in our society would probably agree that the failure of development programmes is probably strongly linked to the exclusion of women from such initiatives. Women have often been marginalised, even by those seeking to change their lives.
Unfortunately, very little research has been done in this area and it may be useful for this institution to begin leading the way.
It is also vital for policy makers to realise that socio-economic imperatives should not be used to compel all women to pursue science, commerce, and technology in higher education. Every society should ensure it develops ability in literature, sociology, philosophy, languages and a range of other fields that contribute to intellectual enrichment in a society. Attention should also be paid to ensuring that all graduates are educated about unfair discrimination and its effects on a society's progress. A full curriculum of this kind will lead to real success in eroding gender inequality.
Close
Clearly then, there can be little doubt that the barriers to the full and equitable involvement and participation of women in higher education are many and complex. As indicated by the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) in 1996:
"There are indications that the climate at some South African campuses is not always conducive to the social accommodation and integration of a diversity of groups. Experiences by female and black students and staff in particular suggest that conditions at institutions do not facilitate the full participation of members of all social categories and groups".
Since then, many institutions have recognised that their traditional structures and practices may not be supportive of more diverse student and staff populations and have begun to re-examine their institutional cultures and approaches in the context of a democratic South Africa. While there has been some progress, albeit uneven, there is much still to be done.
The magnitude of the task is such that it cannot be left to any one party. It cannot be driven by university councils and managements alone but requires the full commitment and involvement of all key stakeholders in higher education institutions, including student and staff structures. It also requires support at the systemic level, by way of the necessary enabling policy frameworks. In the course of the coming period, I will be paying particular attention to ensure that national policy frameworks are indeed responsive to gender equity imperatives.
I thank you for inviting me to join you this afternoon and wish you every success for the rest of the festival programme.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
3 August 2004
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