Hidden transcripts: The micropolitics of gender in Commonwealth universities
Synopsis: This article is about the subtle and complex ways in which discrimination against women takes place in higher education. A major finding of the Gender Equity in Commonwealth Higher Education Project was the way in which gendered power is relayed via everyday transactions and relationships....
| Published in: | Women's Studies International Forum Vol. 29; no. 6; pp. 543 - 552 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier B.V.
Nov2006
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=23352955&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 23352955 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 02775395 WSI jtl: Women's Studies International Forum issn: 02775395 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2006 vid: 29 iid: 6 pid: 2410 pub: Elsevier B.V. artinfo: ui: 23352955 10.1016/j.wsif.2006.10.007 ppf: 543 ppct: 9 formats: tig: atl: Hidden transcripts: The micropolitics of gender in Commonwealth universities aug: au: Morley, Louise affil: University of Sussex, UK su: Sex discrimination against women Higher education Universities & colleges Sex discrimination Gender Education sug: subj: Sex discrimination against women Higher education Universities & colleges Sex discrimination Gender Education ab: Synopsis: This article is about the subtle and complex ways in which discrimination against women takes place in higher education. A major finding of the Gender Equity in Commonwealth Higher Education Project was the way in which gendered power is relayed via everyday transactions and relationships. Even where there is a sophisticated equity policy context as in the case of South Africa, macro aspirations often do not reach the micro-level of experience. This article applies the conceptual framework of micropolitics in its analysis of women students'' and staffs'' experiences of the gendered organisational culture of higher education. It examines how gender discrimination can take place via informal networks, coalitions, and exclusions, as well as by formal arrangements in classrooms and boardrooms. Drawing on qualitative data from the five countries, Nigeria, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and from the international literature searched for this project [. Researching women: An annotated bibliography on gender equity in Commonwealth higher education. London: Institute of Education.], this article explores some of the hidden transcripts of women''s engagements with higher education on a comparative basis. It reports and theorises the findings that illustrate how social practices and gendered power relations symbolically and materially construct and regulate women''s everyday experiences of higher education. By interviewing women staff and students, managers and policy-makers, as well as by observing gendered relations in classrooms, boardrooms and staff training sessions, the project found that women experience a range of discriminatory practices, gendered processes and exclusions within higher education. These include the exclusion of women from career development opportunities, gender-insensitive pedagogical processes, prejudice about women''s academic abilities and intellectual authority, poor equality policy implementation and backlash and stigmatisation in relation to affirmative action programmes. Much of this discrimination was covert, intangible and abstract. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2006 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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