Women ‘have to know their place’

Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande. Photo: Siyabulela Duda

Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande. Photo: Siyabulela Duda

Published Jun 9, 2015

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Durban - From being accused of sleeping their way to the top, to being shut up and shut out, patriarchy is the “daily bread” of some of South Africa’s black women academics.

Interviews with black female academics on how patriarchy affected their work and their chances of climbing the professional ladder revealed that in what was meant to be a collegial environment, disempowerment and disrespect had taken root.

These findings were the work of University of Zululand researchers Professor Eunice Dlamini and Jabulile Adams (PhD), who investigated patriarchy in an unnamed previously disadvantaged university.

In a paper published in the Perspectives in Education journal, Dlamini and Adams asked eight black women academics to share their experiences of patriarchy in the workplace, and how it affected their upward mobility.

The research authors began by affirming that gender equity was one of the fundamental principles underpinning the transformation of South Africa’s education system.

“Women in particular are targeted for education due to the intricate link between the education of women and girls, and sustainable development. This is expressed in the common saying: ‘When you educate a woman, you educate the nation.’ In the academic environment, this expression does not hold because women appear to be an endangered species.”

Dlamini and Adams suggested a more appropriate expression was: “When you educate a woman, you pose a threat to male power.”

Data the pair quoted showed that in 2003, the average number of women in senior management positions was only 24% across all the country’s universities.

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has acknowledged that the number of black women professors in the country is unacceptably low.

According to Nzimande’s department, in 2012, of all the full-time and part-time full professors and associate professors in South Africa, 16% were black African women. Of South Africa’s permanent, full-time professors, only 34 were black African women.

Dlamini and Adams define patriarchy as ideology elevating men to positions of leadership, and to a status of recognition of importance and superiority over women, which ignores their ability, qualifications, and potential.

One research participant interviewed by Dlamini and Adams said it was a “known fact” that at the university where she worked, women had to “know your place”, and that being a woman meant being “subordinate”.

The women academics spoke of being excluded from responsibilities which would empower them: including not being able to participate in decision-making, and perpetually being saddled with “abnormal” numbers of students to teach.

Women academics who did speak out against patriarchy were labelled as disrespectful.

One research participant said: “Colleagues in my section had told me to shut up, not only in meetings, because my challenging issues blocked my upward mobility. I considered that to be unfair, for the reason that promotions should be based on identified criteria and on how rigorously one debates academic issues and perhaps treads on some sensitive toes.”

All the research participants agreed that universities paid lip service to gender equity.

Four of the women academics interviewed spoke of being accused by a male manager of sleeping their way into their positions.

“I shudder when I think about the day he told us that we had sex with someone in order to be employed.”

When the women reported this accusation to a senior manager, also a man, it was disregarded.

“The manager said I was lying and that I was aggressive, that I must behave as expected of women. I realised he was defending his male colleague, and the integrity of males.”

Dlamini and Adams believed that the growing numbers of women students needed role models such as women professors and women senior managers. But professorship, particularly in certain historically disadvantaged universities, remained a man’s domain.

The research participants argued that where there was a faculty without a single woman professor, it was not due to a lack of capable women.

“One typical chauvinist reason put forward … is that some of the women who qualify for promotion are emotional in meetings.”

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