How government policies affect women in management positions in universities: A case study of a private university in Uganda

Abstract

The issue addressed is the continuing under-representation of women in higher education management. The data presented show that in spite of advances which women have made in many areas of public life in the past two decades, in the area of higher education management they are still a long way from participating on the same footing as men. Whereas the hope is that academic life is a sphere where in theory, women should find few barriers to opportunity and that if there is anywhere that women professionals should be successful, it is in the universities, the reality seems to be that academia has been perceived as traditionally elitist, male and patriarchal in its workplace culture, structure and values. The research design used in the study was qualitative research design. The sample consisted of 15 males and 25 females, who were obtained by purposive sampling. The qualitative data was collected using in-depth interview and focus group discussions The major finding of the study is that private universities are not adhering to Ugandan Governments’ policy that a minimum of 40% of managerial positions should be occupied by women.