Abstract
The growing salience of gender in African political and intellectual landscapes has had impacts in the education sector. Education, identified as one most important single factor, for closing the wide gender gap, has been targeted to it political and socio-economic benefits. Higher education institutions, which experience the widest gender equity gaps in education programming have drawn grave attention and various responses being developed to mitigate the situation. This paper discusses the response of one institution, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), to bridge gender equity gaps through a partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York. In the process, OAU – Carnegie Gender Equity Initiative was put in place to tackle the specific problem of the under-presentation of women in OAU. This paper examines the initiative for its impact on the University and constituent communities. Secondary data was collected from Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies and Planning and Budgeting Unit of the University. Analysis of various conceptual and empirical sources reveals that the Gender Equity Project has made tremendous impact on all spheres of the University. The Project, through its fellowships to women academics, specific junior faculty to complete their Ph. Ds, and strengthened the capacities of administrative staff. The extension of scholarships to women indigent undergraduate and postgraduate students helped in the retention of the awardees and the completion of their programmes and the University Community has become more gender sensitive. Moreover, OAU now operates a Gender Policy which is expected to help institutionalize gender issues into all facets of the University. In conclusion, OAU is making progress in institutionalizing gender into all aspects of the University life thus moving towards achieving gender equality and gender mainstreaming.KEYWORDS: Gender Equality, Institutional Partnerships, Gender Mainstreaming, Higher Education, Staff Development.
Highlights
It has been realized the world over that the exclusion of women from various aspects of national life has serious implications for development
For the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, the dropout rate for Arts was 11.3% and Education was 62.5% (NUC, 2001)
The Gender Equity Project (GEP) as an intervention has succeeded in improving the gender situation in the University by making it possible for creating innovative spaces for engaging in gender discussions and analysis such as the Gender Equity Bulletin, Gender Web Forum and Gender Forum on Air as well as the creation of focal points and use of sensitization workshops to approach the problem of gender gaps
Summary
It has been realized the world over that the exclusion of women from various aspects of national life has serious implications for development. Institutional arrangements, enrolment criterion, parental preference, collective social rationality, curriculum provisions and teacher effects have all played to the favour of boys and men This has resulted in gaps in educational access, inclusion and attainment between women and men. The gender situational analysis of educational enrolments in the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), the focus of this paper, is not different from the above. The proportion of male teachers was consistently higher than that of female teachers for all levels of education but the gap increased more widely from primary school to universities. All the data sets provided clear evidence of gender disparities in the system and of fluctuations over the years It reveals that female enrolment at OAU has never exceeded 30.0% of total enrolment and some decreases.
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