Gender mainstreaming: myths and measurement in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania

Abstract

This article critically examines the concept of gender mainstreaming and raises questions about a series of category slippages in debates and discussions. Some key concerns are the way in which women are constructed as a unified analytical category, and how gender equality is frequently reduced to issues of representation. It also critically interrogates how gender mainstreaming initiatives can be undermined by sexist practices such as sexual harassment. Focusing on higher education, it draws on empirical data from the research project 'Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard' (sussex.ac.uk/wphegt). Central arguments relate to the call for intersectional analyses and how GM needs to go beyond access and representation and address feminist concerns with the way in which gendered power and privilege are enacted in everyday social relations in higher education institutions.

Women's leadership in the Asian Century: does expansion mean inclusion?

“…A female Vice-Chancellor in India comments on how, as a young academic, she was seen as having usurped a male entitlement to a job: The challenges described above outline how institutional processes and practices are designed and executed in relation to male norms -something that gendermainstreaming policies attempt to address (Morley, 2010 As the above narratives suggest, toxic relations and dealing with ugly feelings were a source of stress and anxiety for many of the female participants in the study. The symbolic violence and lack of confidence in their leadership abilities and potential and the desire to keep them in subordinate and often sexualised positions, corroded their sense of self-efficacy and represented an additional burden that depleted their energy and aspirations.…”

Individualized sex equality in transforming Finnish academia

“…Elsewhere, though, studies have targeted higher education nationally (Soyland et al, 2000;Gruber and Bauer, 2008) using cross-cultural comparisons (Morley 2007(Morley , 2010 and at the level of the European Union (Rees 2001). In addition, the principles of gender mainstreaming have been observed from the perspective of higher-education management, career development (Berggren, 2011) and curriculum (Morley, 2007).…”

“…Countries have been accused of shallow implementation of the policy, as a mere rhetorical change to describe the equality politics already existing. Conceptual problems have correspondingly gained some attention (Squires 2007;Grenz et al, 2008) since the ambiguity of the concepts and aims has resulted in weak practical implementation (Morley, 2010). In addition, different understandings of gender have led to different reform approaches (Eveline and Bacchi, 2005).…”

“…This could be seen a type of equality of outcomes, if understood as measurable situation. Morley (2010) pays attention to the tendency of gender mainstreaming to treat gender as universal and men and women as dichotomist, homogenous groups. The differences and tensions inside the groups remain invisible and unproblematized, in relation also to transforming family relations.…”

“…Unterhalter 2005;Aikman and Rao, 2012). With regard to the understanding of sex differences behind the policies, the ideological arguments between the sameness and the difference of sexes have been accompanied by the variations of pluralism and intersectionality (Svensson, 2006;Morley, 2010;Timmers et al, 2010).…”