Traditional Gender Norms are the Main Barrier to Ghanaian Women Pursuing Academic Careers

The gender composition from nine Ghanaian universities based on data from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission showed that: only 10.2% of all full professors – the most senior academic level – were women. Women accounted for just 14.2% of those ranked as Associate Professors, only 13.4% of senior lecturers were women; the figure was 22.8% for lecturers and 26.4% for assistant lecturers. These numbers reflect similar numerical trends elsewhere in the world. For example, in Australia, women held 54.7% of lecturer ranks, 46.8% of senior lecturer ranks, and only 33.9% of women held ranks above senior lecturer. In Nigeria, women represented only 23.7% of academic staff in universities in the 2018/2019 academic year. In Sierra Leone, out of the 1779 full time academic staff only 267 were women representing only 18% of the total academic staff.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

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