University Gender Policy and Women's Representation in Committees and Leadership Positions in a Nigerian University

Abstract

This research work assessed the university gender policy and determined the extent to which it has enhanced women's representation in committees and leadership positions in Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. It identified the challenges of the full implementation of the policy and proffered strategies that can be adopted to make it more functional. The study adopted the survey research design and utilized both primary and secondary data. Primary data was generated from the conduct of in-depth interviews of 13 purposively selected chairpersons of 13 randomly selected university committees; and 3 purposively selected senior members of staff of the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies from where the gender policy was initiated. Secondary data were derived from the Planning, Monitoring and Budgeting Unit of the university as well as from relevant literature. The retrieved data from the in-depth interviews were analyzed using the ZY index table, while the sex disaggregated data derived from the Planning, Monitoring and Budgeting Unit were presented in percentages. The study found that the policy has not achieved its mandate of ensuring a 70:30 ratio representation of men and women in committees and leadership positions in the university and that women were grossly under represented. The existence of patriarchal culture was found to be a leading cause of female under representation and a challenge to the full implementation of the policy. Biases in the nomination of members into committees and a low pool of senior women to draw membership from were also found to be causes. A critical strategy found for ensuring the full implementation of the policy was provision of funds by the university. Also found useful was the need to raise the awareness of the community and management about the mandate of the policy through creating appropriate organizational arrangements that monitor the application of gender equity principles. The study concluded that there is need to deconstruct the conditions that incapacitate the policy, so that the university can thrive better by having more women in committees and leadership positions.