Eugenia Anderson

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana

Title: It seems the women are taking over”: Stereotyping around women in top-level leadership positions in Ghana’s universities

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Biography

Eugenia Anderson is an adjunct lecturer and feminist historian affiliated with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. She holds an MPhil and a PhD in Historical Studies, specialising in the gender question in Social Movements in Africa through the lens of student activism. She is  expertise cuts across variant research themes and methods, with a key interest in student activism, gender, higher education, and healthcare. She is currently working at Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow with the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, working on decolonisation and student activism in postcolonial African universities. She is also a part of  Feminist Africa Research Consortium on religious digital activism in Africa. 

Abstract

This research explores patterns of change in the advancement of academic women’s leadership at universities in Ghana. Women’s progression in leadership positions have been generally slow as they are known to usually occupy lower positions. Referred to as the ‘glass ceiling’, women generally suffered great setbacks in their advancement in leadership positions, although recent events have led to the appointment and election of women into top-level leadership positions at universities. At a conference at the University of Ghana, organised by the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa in September 2022, one attendee commented that “It seems the women are taking over”, due to the number of women occupying top-level positions at the university. Existing literature on women’s leadership at the universities have not adequately explored the implications of the recent appointment of women chancellors, vice-chancellors, and registrars on the perception of women’s leadership and advancement of the careers of women at universities. This research investigates the challenges women face in the advancement of their careers, and implications of the recent appointment of women in leadership positions. Using a feminist decolonial lens, it inductively analyses semi-structured interviews with key academic women as well as men in leadership positions at selected universities, backed with the authors’ experience as female academics, and employment records. It adds to knowledge on the gradual advancement of women to top leadership positions at universities and indicates that women in leadership positions serve as role models to younger women to aspire and compete for positions of influence.