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Using a post-structural lens, I make arguments against homogenising people's conditions and circumstances. In particular, I acknowledge that the post-1994 reform agenda intended to streamline the previously fragmented and segregated higher education landscape under the apartheid regime. Black women, who are the main target of this article suffered triple marginalisation -race, social class and sexism. The aim of the article is to show the tensions that exist within the White Paper: A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education (DoE 1997). The said tensions have stifled the attainment of gender equity and equality; effectively widening the gender fissures in post-1994 South African higher education. I argue that we should not take for granted phrases such as "equal opportunities" and "equal access" in policies. Instead, we should seek their meaning and achievement inter alia in earnest for the targeted group. Therefore, I postulate that gender and gendering is complex and very fragmented. For this reason, formulating transformation interventions on the premise of equality for all does not necessarily guarantee gender equality or gender equity. With this in mind, a "one-size fits all" approach to redressing gender equality is implausible and does not suffice in addressing salient gender injustices. I propose a multifaceted approach, which encompasses a realistic and holistic outlook on the divergent needs of black women in particular and women in general as a possible solution to the current challenges.

This article presents a theoretical and thematic exploration of gender equity in post-apartheid South African higher education. The article argues that while South African women played a very important role in the struggle for political liberation, the current situation in South Africa's political, economic and education institutions seems to suggest that the effort they put in the struggle does not commensurate the gains thereafter. A majority of South Africa's girls and women still struggle to access quality education and excel at most levels, which is a direct contravention of the Constitutional guarantee of equality for all who live in this great nation. Although the gender equity paradigm in South African higher education can be credited as having recorded some formidable achievements in terms of increased enrolment for female students especially Black women in higher education, a deliberate effort has to be made to shift attention from aggregations to impediments in order for the promise of equality and equity to be realized for those who experienced most barriers in accessing higher education. In the current South African context, one needs to deal with disadvantages that are perpetuated through the socio-economic positioning of families, the inability to use the language of power, content complexity, embedded institutional cultures and practices, among others.

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