[August 02, 2011] Women Academic Numbers Need to Grow Tweet Aug 02, 2011 (The Citizen/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- African universities have few female students opting for 'hard sciences'. And despite the availability of funds, attracting female science lecturers is even more challenging. These were among concerns discussed recently in Cape Town by senior women from universities in Botswana, Mauritius and Tanzania attending the HERS-SA academy. The consensus was that the problem boils down to a shortage of role models. HERS-SA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the advancement of women in higher education, which among other things runs an annual week-long training academy for senior women in the sector from across Africa. Africa is not unique in having its women scientists outnumbered by men; it is a worldwide phenomenon. In most African universities, women generally avoid studying 'hard sciences' (the natural and physical sciences such as civil or mechanical engineering), tending more towards 'soft sciences' such as the social sciences. "It creates and perpetuates a perception that females perform less or are intellectually inferior to boys, but that is not the case," said Professor Rommela Mohee, dean of engineering at the University of Mauritius or UoM, the oldest university in that country. Mohee told University World News that past graduates had said getting a job in hard sciences was tough for women in Mauritius, and at times women would come last after all the qualified men had been given opportunities. She suggested it was "a question of confidence" on the part of recruiters, adding that those interviewing candidates for hard sciences jobs asked: "Can women perform?" Mohee, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering, explained that a further factor keeping down female science lecturer numbers at university level was that they thought salaries were too low and they would rather work in the private sector. This contributed to declining numbers of women even as the university sought to increase them. Mohee, a five-time international science awards winner, including in the Africa Union Scientific Award Programme aimed at women, believes the key to attracting more women into the sciences lies in promoting the advantages to girls as early as primary school. Rekha Issur-Goora, the first woman registrar at UoM, said in the case of Mauritius it was not a question of inadequate resources to promote women, because the resources were in place. "We don't have a problem with the recruitment of gender in Mauritius, but the interest is not high. There are more female students studying biology than sciences," said Issur-Goora, who has worked at the university for 23 years and rose through the ranks from an administrative officer to her current post. She said this was also reflected in the senior management of most higher education institutions in Mauritius. Mauritius has nine public, 35 private and 50 foreign institutions delivering tertiary-level programmes, with information technology, management, engineering, medicine, education and commerce being the most popular courses. Representing the University of Botswana, director of public affairs Mhitshane Reetsang said: "As Botswana we are doing well in educating women in institutions of higher learning, but not many are opting for sciences, not to mention hard sciences, as we would want them to do." Patience Tirelo, an environmental health lecturer who studied pure mathematics at that university, admitted that getting more female students into the sciences seemed an uphill battle: "They only have two women teaching in the engineering department," she said. Botswana's challenge in attracting more women students and academics will increase as it prepares to open its second public university, the Botswana International University of Science and Technology, next year. "It's clear there are no role models. If more young women like Tirelo can take up posts like these, it will be a strong message to other women that it can be done," Reetsang told University World News. Reetsang clarified that she was not suggesting other areas of study were less important than the 'hard sciences', but that Botswana cannot be a nation that ignores the challenge of attracting male and female citizens equally to explore careers in science. "Our policies are great when it comes to catering for women and disadvantaged groups; the problem comes at implementation," said Dr Nkisang Moeti, deputy dean in the faculty of business at the University of Botswana. Moeti said that among the disadvantaged groups in Botswana, women in remote areas often came off worst, and that the university needed to identify and develop all those with potential. Dr Aiwerasia Ngowi, who has taught at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Arusha, Tanzania, for the past three years, agreed that though opportunities were extended equally to women and men in science, men came out tops at the end of the day. "There are few women who take slots in sciences; they feel that you do not make much out of life. The market does not give them enough respect in terms of remuneration," Ngowi told University World News. The American Association of University Women released a report Why So Few? in March this year and acknowledged that although women had made significant gains in society, environmental and social barriers - including stereotypes, gender bias and the climate of science and engineering departments in colleges and universities - continued to block their participation and progress in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Catherine Hill, the association's research director and lead author of the report, told the New York Times that they scanned the literature for research with immediate applicability. "We found a lot of small things can make a difference, like a course in spatial skills for women going into engineering, or teaching children that math ability is not fixed, but grows with effort," she said. With the report highlighting a number of problems common but not exclusive to women in universities, the findings might well contribute to identifying solutions to growing their numbers in Africa while building women's confidence in careers in the sciences. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]