5 - How Women in Higher Education Negotiate Work and Home: A Study of Selected Women at a University in South Africa
Corresponding Author(s) : Venitha Pillay
Journal of Higher Education in Africa,
Vol. 10 No. 2 (2012): Journal of Higher Education in Africa
Abstract
The Council for Higher Education notes the lack of women doing research in South African universities. Focusing on the experiences of South African women academics, this article highlights the ways in which inequitable gender relations fuel women’s marginalized position in higher education. The findings reported here include the gendered dimensions of negotiating home and work, pointing both to obstacles that limit women’s agency and to prospects for hope by elucidating new possibilities for the development of women’s agency. Being women in higher education and mothers is at the same time is regulated by restrictive understandings of gender. But women are not simply victims of this discourse. Hence, greater care must be taken in understanding women’s gendered roles that inhibit their greater participation in research. Transforming gender relations and working towards equity are, therefore, crucial to women’s success.
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- Bailyn, L., 2003, ‘Academic Careers and Gender Equity: Lessons Learned from MIT’,Gender, Work and Organisation, 10, 137-153.
- Bassett, R.H., 2005, ‘The Life I didn’t Know I Wanted’, in Bassett, ed., Parenting and Professing: Balancing Family Work with an Academic Career, pp. 217- 224, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press.
- CHE, 2009, Women in Higher Education, Pretoria, Department of Higher Education and Training.Connell, R., 2002, Gender, Cambridge, Polity Press.
- Connell, R., 2005, ‘A Really Good Husband: Work/Life Balance, Gender Equity and Social Change’,Australian Journal of Social Issues, 40, 369-383.
- Connell, R., 2006, ‘Glass Ceilings or Gendered Institutions? Mapping the Gender Regimes of Public Sector Worksites’, Public Administration Review, 66, 837-849.
- Finch, J., 2003, ‘Foreword: Why be Interested in Women’s Position in Academe?’,Gender, Work & Organization, 10, 133-136.
- Jansen, J., with Herman, C., Matentjies, T., Morake, R., Pillay, V., Sehoole, C. and Weber, E.,2007, ‘Tracing and Explaining Change in Higher Education: The South African Case’, in Council of Higher Education, ed., Review of Higher Education in South Africa, Pretoria: Council on Higher Education.
- Jonnergård, K., Stafsudd, A. and Elg, U., 2010, ‘Performance Evaluations as Gender Barriers in Professional Organizations: AStudy of Auditing Firms’, Gender, Work and Organization, 17, 721-749.Pillay, V., 2007, Academic Mothers, Pretoria: UNISA.
- Skjortnes, M. and Zachariassen, H., 2010, ‘Even with Higher Education You Remain a Woman: A Gender Perspective on Higher Education and Social Change in the Toliara Region of Madagascar’, Gender and Education, 22, 193-207.
References
Bailyn, L., 2003, ‘Academic Careers and Gender Equity: Lessons Learned from MIT’,Gender, Work and Organisation, 10, 137-153.
Bassett, R.H., 2005, ‘The Life I didn’t Know I Wanted’, in Bassett, ed., Parenting and Professing: Balancing Family Work with an Academic Career, pp. 217- 224, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press.
CHE, 2009, Women in Higher Education, Pretoria, Department of Higher Education and Training.Connell, R., 2002, Gender, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Connell, R., 2005, ‘A Really Good Husband: Work/Life Balance, Gender Equity and Social Change’,Australian Journal of Social Issues, 40, 369-383.
Connell, R., 2006, ‘Glass Ceilings or Gendered Institutions? Mapping the Gender Regimes of Public Sector Worksites’, Public Administration Review, 66, 837-849.
Finch, J., 2003, ‘Foreword: Why be Interested in Women’s Position in Academe?’,Gender, Work & Organization, 10, 133-136.
Jansen, J., with Herman, C., Matentjies, T., Morake, R., Pillay, V., Sehoole, C. and Weber, E.,2007, ‘Tracing and Explaining Change in Higher Education: The South African Case’, in Council of Higher Education, ed., Review of Higher Education in South Africa, Pretoria: Council on Higher Education.
Jonnergård, K., Stafsudd, A. and Elg, U., 2010, ‘Performance Evaluations as Gender Barriers in Professional Organizations: AStudy of Auditing Firms’, Gender, Work and Organization, 17, 721-749.Pillay, V., 2007, Academic Mothers, Pretoria: UNISA.
Skjortnes, M. and Zachariassen, H., 2010, ‘Even with Higher Education You Remain a Woman: A Gender Perspective on Higher Education and Social Change in the Toliara Region of Madagascar’, Gender and Education, 22, 193-207.