The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) at the University of Ghana has held a day’s roundtable to discuss pertinent issues revolving around creating more spaces in the academic space for women to compete favourably in such world class centres for knowledge dissemination.
The well attended event which took place on the 29th of May, 2024 was held on the theme; “ Re-thinking the academic environment for increasing gender balance and inclusion”. The event brought together scores of academics notably females , policy analysts, students and senior university managers to deliberate on identifiable challenges female academics encounter in their day to day lives in their cooperate settings and to present policy solutions and networks to help push more women into the competitive field of teaching and research work.
Speaking at the event on behalf of the Vice Chancellor , the Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, Professor Mary Setrana intimated that female scholars face many challenges in climbing further up the academic ladder in their various institutions by the forms of discrimination and lack of cooperation from fellow lecturers and colleagues within and without the universities both home and abroad.
It was with such issues that the University of Ghana developed an affirmative action policy for female scholars to be able to rub shoulders with their male colleagues to get research grants and scholarship opportunities existing in the institution and encourage more women to take up careers in academia .
” Gender Inclusion and equality issues in society that have been on the drawing board in general discussions in society are equally pertinent in the field of academia and as such we must as senior academics and management staff in the various institutions of higher learning across the continent draft and implement policies which are tilted towards getting more females into our institutions to partake in knowledge generation and dissemination at the highest levels.
As part of such actionable steps, the University of Ghana which i head has put in place adequate measures and people centred policies that focus on the training and development of young female members of our various departments and learning units to progress in their careers and compete favourably with their male colleagues in the long term and foster wholistic growth and diversity in our staff numbers in line with modern trends”.
Also, a Guest panellist at the event, Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo added that it is about time senior management officials of universities take deliberate actionable steps to create an enabling environment for young and aspiring female academics to be attracted into the field of academia by policy formulation and consistent advocacy through leveraging on social connections and partnerships with global educational partners to achieve gender parity in institutions of higher learning.
” Institutions and older colleagues in the teaching and research profession must be willing and ready to use their connections and networks to mentor and help brilliant and smart female early career academics to reach their fullest potentials by way of mentorship for persons in the form of knowledge transfer and skills acquisition in the various courses in the universities.
On a broader scale , the issues confronting women academics across the African continent can be solved by creating channels of communication and welfare groups where an all encompassing approach to generate advocacy for gendered issues can be raised and adequately addressed as well as creating more participation in global research projects which exposes the target groups to the modern and sophisticated ways of surviving the minefield of academia in a largely male dominated field in general”.
Furthermore , Professor Fatoumatou Keita of the University of Arts and Human Sciences , Bamako revealed that it would be easier for issues of gender in academia to be better fought by all stakeholders by taking use of Pan African Educational bodies and projects to drive a concerted effort across the continent to achieve desired results.
” I agree with my senior colleague, Professor Adomako that we cannot continue to fight in silos to create the much needed freedom and opportunities for enterprising young and knowledge hungry female scholars across the continent but rather we need to put up a collective fight with a unified voice to demand our chances from our various university management officials and governments which fund our institutions in our home countries as well.
We must continue to incentivize and invest in Pan African entities like the Association of African Universities headquartered here in Accra to speak on our behalf at global policy conferences and research funding pitch competitions from our counterpart funders in the advanced countries to achieve our long desired aim of equity when it comes careers in academia”.
The MIASA Co-Director (Ghana), Dr. Grace Diabah, welcomed participants and introduced them briefly to MIASA. She stated that MIASA is a unit within the College of Humanities that works in partnership with four German partners – the University of Freiburg, the Goethe University, Frankfurt, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies and the German Historical Institute Paris.
She mentioned that the Institute, jointly sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and the University of Ghana, offers time and space for innovative academic research projects of top international quality through an extensive fellowship programme, academic events, and open access for publications. It also promotes German-African research collaboration by developing an intellectual agenda as part of a research programme that runs under the thematic umbrella of “Sustainable Governance from an Inter-disciplinary Perspective
MIASA is committed to promote women’s scholarship with a special focus on the African continent. In collaboration with its partners, MIASA organizes an annual Female Academic Careers in Africa Coaching Workshop and a Public Roundtable.
MIASA has offered Female Academic Careers in Africa Workshops since 2018 in collaboration with the GHIP. The workshops have been organised both in Accra and Dakar. The workshop welcomes early- and mid-career female academics who are affiliated in the Social Sciences and Humanities with universities or research institutes in Africa. Workshop participants come from all over Africa.
This workshop offers time and space to discuss the challenges and opportunities for women in academia. Participants are accompanied by a coach, exploring together professional relationships in academic practice and addressing issues of team-building, university hierarchies, and leadership. The workshop invites participants to develop strategies for keeping a work-life-balance that allows for prospering in their research and academic work, and to be ready for taking up leadership positions
The Public Roundtable intends to reach out to broader audiences and allow for a conversation with experienced scholars.
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