By Tswelopele Makoe
IN recent weeks, there has been a flurry of articles written about the plight of female leadership in academia. However, from my standpoint, the challenges faced by women go far beyond academia. They are evident in virtually all aspects of life, throughout all industries.
The dawn of democracy, nearly three decades ago, saw a crucial turn towards the actualisation of prosperity for the previously repressed majority of South Africa. This was the ushering of a new age where equity would be brought to the fore, and opportunities finally accessible to all.
The sentiment of collective prosperity heightened the fabric of the nation. What was promptly addressed at this time was the educational sector, and the need to consolidate higher educational institutions across the nation. However, the educational sector of the post-apartheid South Africa has not been without enduring challenges.
The legacy of apartheid, and the plaguing of racial and gender discrimination in our social, political and education institutions, has ravaged our contemporary society with countless inequalities and entrenched injustice right into the fabric of our society.
Poverty, homelessness, illiteracy, and instability affect almost two-thirds of the population. This has, in effect, directly shaped the often-harrowing experience of those entering into higher education institutions, both during and after their initial inception into these environments.
Within the education sector, the issue of access, representation, and even colonial education, has burdened our institutions. Today, the gender equity pay gap in our higher education institutions is miles behind that of the rest of the globe.
People of colour are very rarely instilled into meaningful positions of power, and when they are, they oftentimes have to contend impending sabotage, debilitating structures, immeasurable financial and technological demands, and the needs of a high influx of students throughout the academic year.
For women, who are faced with a double burden of their gender and race, it is oftentimes an intimidating and distressing role to undertake.
At the height of the Fees Must Fall movement in 2015, the question of accessibility and institutional exclusion was brought to the forefront. What was evidently highlighted at this time was that the educational sector had made no efforts to acknowledge or address the realistic challenges of innumerable students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The lingering challenges of the students, which stemmed from our abhorrent history of apartheid, were essentially ignored as scores of students battled to complete their studies.
Today, almost a decade after the Fees Must Fall movement, students across the nation still contend with the harsh challenges in higher education. From high economic demands, to resource prerequisites and institutional instability - particularly where student aid is concerned, higher education remains an uphill battle.
In fact, the challenges within higher education are seemingly consistent over the years, with extraordinarily little being done to redress these issues. These challenges include issues of student housing, financial exclusion, contentious environmental factors, and essential school resources, amongst many others.
At the centre of these challenges is also racial and gender disparities within higher educational institutions, and how these challenges directly affect both students and staff members who belong to them.
In the recent years, we have seen a positively sturdy influx of female leadership in higher education. This means that the issue of access to power, particularly for people of colour, has been increasingly overturning.
This, however, still begs a serious challenge for those in power, who contend with the inequity that is entrenched into the systems of higher education institutions. There is a particular complexity in juggling the daily routine of an institution, whilst maintaining a progressive and transformational outlook in your endeavours, whist at the same time balancing the critical discourse that are necessitated in such spaces.
However, female leaders in higher education such as Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng, Prof Thoko Mayekiso, Prof Sibongile Muthwa, to name a few, have made incredible strides in ensuring that higher education institutions, as well as the needs of the students, do not fall to the wayside.
Oftentimes, demographics in higher education institutions solely focus on the student populace.
However, the composition of staff matters a lot, particularly when considering the discriminatory history of our educational institutions, and the havoc that this history has wreaked on the stability and survivability of scores of citizens.
Institutional racism is directly impacted by those who occupy educational institutions. Institutional racism does not merely consider the system itself, but also those within the system, which uphold it in particular ways.
This may come in the form of financial exclusion, lack of vital resources, lack of access and transportation, and a lack of support systems that are necessary to tackle the workload demanded by these institutions.
Although the modern age has brought with it provisions for higher education students and staff members, such as financial aid, scholarships, feeding schemes, computer laboratories and institutionally funded resource distribution, the systems themselves can be fickle, and result in countless people becoming vulnerable or displaced.
Since the emergence of the first university in the world in ancient Mali, universities have been a driving force of our society. Higher education institutions are not only the hub of knowledge, but their distribution of knowledge makes them the most impactful tool in the development of society.
The history of education in SA has been riddled with racial and gender inequities. Female leaders in higher education institutions ought to be acknowledged for all the accomplishments that have emerged under their leadership. It is of utmost importance that they are adequately supported, and acknowledged, for the transformative work that they perform.
Education has, and will remain a critical tool in the shaping of a society. It is for this reason that we must strictly interrogate those that have the responsibility of leading these institutions. It is integral that these institutions, as a collective, instil the characteristics of the citizens that we will need in our future, and shape the society that we would like to actualise.
Racial and gender disparities are not unique to this sector, but affect all of the other sectors of our society.
Ultimately, the strengthening of our educational sector brings about the upliftment of society, of our economy, of our political and legislative sectors. With this, our cultural dynamics are increasingly transformed, our public discourses are improved, and our society is consolidated in a meaningful and constructive manner.
We need to ensure that our education institutions are inclusive, equitable and just – not only in word, but also in practice.
The history of education has also been deeply stratified where gender is considered. For an immeasurable amount of time, men received better education than women, obtained more qualifications than women, and had access to better opportunities than women.
It is imperative that women are afforded equal opportunities and equal remuneration. It is vital that women are included in the top levels of leadership, and to effectively help in addressing the challenges that are unique to women.
Historically, higher education institutions have riddled with overt and covert forms of bias, racism, sexism, and homophobia. The patriarchal roots of higher education have resulted in the ostracisation and marginalisation of scores of people for far too long.
In our post-apartheid South Africa, there are a plethora of challenges that weigh-down the social fabric of our nation. In fact, many of these challenges are interrelated – or intersectional – in nature.
We should not allow the educational sector to remain guarded, unwilling to progress with our modern world. It is vital that we maintain the fight for equal representation, transformation, and equity.
Transformation in particular places emphasis on the needs of the society, and the overall preparation of our future. This means ensuring equitable access and upholding the needs of those who enter institutions of higher education.
Many of our institutions still uphold archaic ideals, for example, the misguided ideal that one cannot access higher education institutions without being fluent in the English language.
Most SA institutions engage primarily in English or Afrikaans. This includes assignments having to be written in English, teaching lectures in English, and upholding colonial names on buildings. This can only be redressed through transformation and representation.
As Nelson Mandela once tactfully said: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
- Tswelopele Makoe is a Gender Activist. She is also an Andrew W Mellon Scholar, pursuing an MA Ethics at UWC, affiliated with the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice. All views expressed are her own.