Black African Women in Engineering Higher Education in South Africa

Abstract

Higher education institutions strive to ensure that their faculty are representative of the diverse students they serve. The importance of faculty diversity is particularly important in engineering, which is often dominated by white men. In South Africa, race remains contested 26 years after the end of apartheid, and the majority Black African population continues to be marginalized in political, economic, and knowledge enterprises. Black women represent 90% of the female population in South Africa. However, Black women are scarcely represented—and sometimes absent—in engineering academia. In this chapter, I argue that Black women’s career choices are influenced by their higher education experiences, which signal to Black women that they do not belong in higher education spaces. Using evidence from qualitative interviews conducted with 18 Black African women engineers in South Africa, I highlight how Black women experience higher education as racialized and gendered, discouraging them from pursuing academic careers. These race-gendered experiences need to be understood in the historical context of higher education and engineering in South Africa and in the remnants of an apartheid past that continue to impact everyday decisions of Black African South African women pursuing engineering degrees. The chapter concludes with implications and considerations for higher education institutions and engineering departments as they work to recruit and retain Black women in engineering academia.