Assessing Obafemi Awolowo University's gender equity policy: Nigeria's under-representation of women persists

Caroline Okumdi Muoghalu and Friday Asiazobor Eboiyehi
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

This paper assesses the impact of the Obafemi Awolowo University gender equity policy on enrolment, employment and decision making. Quantitatively, secondary data were obtained from the Planning, Monitoring and Budgeting Unit (PMBU) of the University, while qualitatively, an in-depth interview method was employed to elicit information from the key stakeholders in the University, namely students, teaching and non-teaching staff, different union members, Provosts of Colleges, Deans of Faculties, and past and present Directors and Heads of Departments. Data were analysed in themes. Results showed slight increases in female undergraduate enrolment, female academic employment and in decision making, but decreases in female postgraduate enrolment, compared with 2009 data. This implies that the policy has not met the specific objective of achieving 60:40 male:female ratios in undergraduate and postgraduate student enrolment, female academic staff employment and decision making by 2010. This result was attributed to the non-implementation of gender policy in the University. The major constraints identified for the non-implementation of the policy were funding, patriarchal beliefs, and practices which do not encourage women to compete with their male counterparts in top administrative positions. The paper concludes that the gender equity policy in Obafemi Awolowo University has not made the expected impact as stipulated in the policy, due to patriarchal tendencies - the "hidden curriculum".
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Authors: Dr Caroline O. Muoghalu is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. She teaches medical sociology at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Email: omuoghal@yahoo.co.uk Dr Friday A. Eboiyehi is a Senior Lecturer/Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He teaches gender and social policy, gender and ageing, gender and social development, gender and criminality, and gender in the labour process at the postgraduate level. Email: faeboiyehi@gmail.com Please cite as: Muoghalu, C. O. & Eboiyehi, F. A. (2018). Assessing Obafemi Awolowo University's gender equity policy: Nigeria's under-representation of women persists. Issues in Educational Research, 28(4), 990-1008. http://www.iier.org.au/iier28/muoghalu.pdf