H.E the Ethiopian Amabassador to Uganda (holding a paper) leading participants in a group activity during the one week engagement. Photo by Arnest Tumwesige
By Arnest Tumwesige
Gulu: A research titled; “The Kind of Support to the Female Leaders’ Success in Higher Education: Tales from Vice Chancellors” glances at government of Uganda’s deliberate efforts to create affirmative action.
Anchored under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5, countries like Uganda commit to promoting and guaranteeing women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making.
Published by African Journals Online on May 15, 2023, the research indicates that the affirmative action strategy has seen female enrolment and graduation rates outnumbering their male counterparts, Universities have also designed gender-related policies that consider equity in accessing leadership positions.
Nevertheless, women in senior positions remain few. Of the over 50 universities in Uganda, there are less than 10 female Vice chancellors.
Correspondingly, a UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025 report on Uganda contains statistics from Uganda’s Electoral Commission which indicate that only 5 out of the 146 district chairpersons are female, only one is female city mayor out of ten city mayors and only 1 out of 31 municipalities has a female mayor.
Ethiopian Ambassador on mentorship
H.E Etsegenet Bezabih, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Uganda acknowledges low uptake of leadership positions by women but wants even those in such offices to be mentored to become better leaders.
Through Higher Education Resource Services East Africa (HERS E.A), H.E Etsegenet who was in Gulu City last week addressed women in academia to mentor each other and extend the same to the community.
HERS, is an educational organization advancing women leadership and management. Rooted in USA, it was birthed into East Africa in 2014 and is hosted at Makerere University. Last week, a country coordination office was opened at Gulu University in Gulu City to execute the same mandate.
“Having HERS like this, it bring us together to discuss, to learn from one another and it is a great opportunity to inspire one another. We also give new ideas, opportunities which makes us better tomorrow and get stronger,” the ambassador noted.
She excitedly testified about the mentorship she received from Dr. Gennet Zewide, the former Ethiopian education Minister that molded her into what she is today.
She however downplayed the impression that focusing only on girls would pull down boys and argued that the number of women in leadership position is still too low compared to men.
Chemutai hopeful on HERS
Doreen Chemutai, the coordinator of gender mainstreaming in Gulu University underscored the importance of opening the seventh HERS-EA program as it will inspire the female staff to take on leadership.
“Currently, we have very few women in leadership and we would like to raise a number of them”.
“The academia goes a long way to inspire us on many aspects of life to gain our prestige to understand our abilities and live a fulfilled life,” Chemutai explained.
Chemutai agreed with Dr. Gennet Zewide that patriarchal norms still prevent women from taking up leadership positions as this role in more associated with men which is compounded by stereo types that men are better than women.
“There are policies in place (at Gulu University) that encourage women to take up leadership positions but the system in the institutions do not encourage the women”.
Citing of lame excuses
Dr. Gennet Zewide, a former Ambassador and Education Minister in Ethiopia said in some cases women fail to get promotions on claims that they will not have time for office work due to domestic chores and attending to their sick children and sexual harassment at work place.
She rooted for establishment of child care centres in universities and other institutions where mothers can bring their babies at work place and be able to attend to them within the proximity.
Dr. Gennet however observed that some women doubt their leadership capacity which is rooted into the socialised society that brands women as inferior.
Using herself as example, she pointed out when she was appointed as a minister of education in Ethiopia, it took an extra effort to first convince her to accept the job position she held for 17 years after accepting.
She challenged female academic elites to focus on individual capacity building not with an aim of getting promotions but rather for a better career but also act as change agents to the rest.
The seventh academy carried a theme; “Reimaging Women Leadership in Higher Education for the 21st Century”. It brought together female academic professionals from USA and a few African countries.
