Roles And Challenges Of Academic Women In Kenyan Public Universities

The dissertation uses qualitative case study approach to analyze roles and challenges of women academics in Kenyan public universities in terms of teaching, research and publication, leadership and administration. Factors that encouraged women academics to join academe were also discussed in light of family background, socio-economic and career development. Secondly, it analyzes how they managed to advance through their career. The university culture and how inclusive it is to cater for the needs of these women academics in terms of university culture and availability of child-care services is also discussed. Next, challenges facing these women academics are analyzed in terms of family and work related conflicts, and the influence of cultural beliefs. The strategies that the women academics apply to effectively perform their duties are also discussed.The researcher also traces the historical development of Kenyan education system from the pre-colonial era to the present. This helps to situate the current trend of gender inequality in education in a historical perspective and helps explain that the current inequality is a reflection of the past gender imbalance practices. Finally, gender related policies and how they have influenced gender equity in public universities in Kenya are also analyzed. Feminist theories were analyzed in terms of how they influence research and gender identities, and the validity and pertinence of these theories as they originate from the West in comparison to the African feminism and whether Africa as a continent has feminist theories specific to the characteristics of Africa.The research revealed that family background and socio-cultural factors played a very important role in the choice of these women academics in terms of the way they were socialized through schooling and role models. The women academics followed different paths for career advancement, though majority of them (89%) started their career as teachers in high school. None of them started her first career as an academia. Despite the drastic achievement made by these women academics, the university structure is not very supportive in terms of institutional working environment, though when it comes to support for academic development, there is a mixed reaction with the majority feeling that little is being done as far as faculty staff development is concerned.A nationwide comparative analysis of women academics illustrates that they have minimal representation in administration and management of public universities; with a bare minimal representation in the top most university leadership like Chancellors, Vice-Chancellors and deputy Vice-Chancellors with just less than10%of the total leadership representations. The research revealed that the women academics are actively involved in teaching, research and publication; with some of them having at least a maximum of up to20publications including books and journal articles. Though, there is a general concern among the women academics that publication and research is still not being given the maximum attention it deserves due to lack of funding for research and few African journals where they can publish their work. It also revealed that mentoring is not institutionalized but is rather sporadic. Despite its low prevalence rate, it has encouraged relatively more women to join academia.Lastly, women academics are facing several challenges and barriers like advancing knowledge, work related challenges, research productivity, and role conflicts. They have applied numerous strategies to ensure that they remain relevant both in the family and academic circles. The major strategies they apply include time management, collaboration and self fulfillment. There are laid down policies but the problem are two faceted:first, majority of the women academics do not have the necessary qualifications to enable them effectively have competitive advantage for those posts and secondly, there are some male leaders who want to maintain the status quo.The women academics have made in-roads but they still need to work much harder in terms of publications, leadership, collaboration and mentorship. Measures should be taken to ensure that more young ladies are encouraged to join academia. There should also be laid down procedures of monitoring the existing policies to ensure that they are implemented accordingly. Majority of women academics are lone rangers and are lacking collaborative culture; they therefore need to enhance a collaborative and multi-dimensional approaches with both their male and female colleagues to achieve to the highest of their potentials since they cannot operate in isolation.