5 - How Women in Higher Education Negotiate Work and Home: A Study of Selected Women at a University in South Africa

Deevia Bhana; Venitha Pillay

doi:10.57054/jhea.v10i2.1556

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.

How Women in Higher Education Negotiate Work and Home: A Study of Selected Women at a University in South Africa

Le Conseil de l’enseignement supérieur relève que très peu de femmes font de la recherche dans les universités sud-africaines. En se basant sur les expériences des femmes universitaires sud-africaines, ce document démontre la façon dont l’inégalité de genre augmente la marginalisation des femmes dans l’enseignement supérieur. Les résultats présentés ici comprennent les dimensions genre qui consistent à allier maison et travail tous deux démontrant les obstacles qui limitent l’activité des femmes et les espoirs qu’elles gardent en perspective en élucidant de nouvelles possibilités pour le développement de leur activité. Des compréhensions restrictives du genre réglementent les femmes qui sont à la fois dans l’enseignement supérieur et mères, mais les femmes ne sont pas simplement victimes de ce discours. Cependant une plus grande attention doit être prêtée pour comprendre le rôle des femmes dans le genre et ce qui les empêche à participer grandement à la recherche. Transformer les relations de genre et travailler pour l’équité sont essentiels à la réussite des femmes.

Keywords

women university gender

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Author Biographies

Deevia Bhana

School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Venitha Pillay

University of Pretoria.

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