UKZN Hosts Women in Leadership Conference

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Student development practitioners from South African Higher Education Institutions gathered at UKZN recently for a four-day National Association for Student Development (NASDEV) Women in Leadership Conference.

Held under the theme Equity vs Equality: Women Empowerment in Modern Day South Africa, the conference aimed to empower emerging and current women in leadership.

A gala dinner was held to officially open the conference. Delivering her address as a guest speaker, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Ntokozo kaMayisela turned her focus on the emotional aspect of womanhood - urging women to take charge of their emotional wellbeing. She called on women to support and lean on each other, be kind to themselves and others, and always allow the process of emotional healing.

Ms Normah Zondo, UKZN Corporate Relations Executive Director, said the conference was happening as South Africa celebrates the great strides of women in sport, politics, business, research and other areas. ‘Many of us are still in high spirits following the victory of Banyana Banyana who were recently crowned as the queens of African football. Here in KwaZulu-Natal, the first woman Premier, Ms Nomusa Dube-Ncube - a graduate of UKZN - was recently elected into office,’ she said.

She said one of UKZN’s perpetual missions is women empowerment, adding that the University believes it has made significant progress in this regard, citing the number of female graduates it produces annually, the empowerment of female academics, and the number of women in leadership positions as evidence. ‘At this year’s Autumn Graduation ceremonies, 8 795 students graduated, of which 63.38% were women. UKZN also has more than 30% of Black women in senior management positions, while over 26% are part of the middle management and almost 50% are skilled/junior management staff members. Moreover, we have created an environment that encourages and supports women empowerment. We agree that we are not where we want to be, but we are certainly on the right track. We have put in several programmes, including the Imbokodo Women in Leadership and Academia Programme, to help us consolidate these gains,’ she said.

Presentations, panel discussions, sharing of ideas, good practices and robust debates during the question and answer sessions kept the audience interested and engaged throughout the conference.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Internationalisation at the University of Cape Town Professor Sue Harrison spoke on Women in Higher Education: Factors Influencing the Career Trajectory of Women in Senior Management in Higher Education.

Harrison encouraged women to choose the path they wanted for their purpose and encouraged practitioners to welcome opportunities and decide what to do with them.

She advised women leaders to create opportunities for their staff to enable them to shine, and for women to work in enabling environments that allowed them to find satisfaction in their work, while believing in themselves.

Harrison said women often carried a large portion of the family with them. What was important to her was to place family alongside a career, giving it the same importance. She encouraged women to inject new thinking to the spaces they were in and be brave enough to bring them to the table.

The Head of Postgraduate Studies and Research in the College of Human Sciences at the University of South Africa, Professor Azwihangwisi Mavhandu-Mudzusi, spoke on LGBTQIA+ Inclusivity in Higher Education - Transformation (Policies and Frameworks). She said there was still stigmatisation and discrimination in the Higher Education sector, the church and sports, especially at rural-based universities. Mavhandu-Mudzusi said that sometimes LGBTQIA+ individuals were forced to become parents to get society off their backs about their gender status.

In her findings, this discrimination led to students giving up their sexuality, underperforming academically, dropping out, choosing courses considered “safe”, having multiple concurrent partners, staying in abusive relationships and intentional exposure to HIV.

Mavhandu-Mudzusi said Higher Education Institutions needed to destabilise heteronormality, create safe spaces for students and have representation in all structures.

Other topics and panel discussions during the conference included subjects around Entrepreneurship in Higher Education. A panel which included female students from the Student Women Economic Empowerment Programme (SWEEP) of Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) and Universities South Africa (USAf) debated the mentorship and funding challenges faced by students. The session was moderated by UKZN alumni, Founder of Fri-Verse and a current Bachelor of Law student, Ms Nobuhle Mzobe.

Co-Creating an Action Plan of Volunteerism: How Might we Better Support Young Women in Business, was the topic of another panel discussion moderated by UKZN alumni, Ms Mbali Bhengu, founder of Mindswitch, which looked at the benefits of volunteerism for students.

Other panel discussions and presentations highlighted the Higher Education perspective in relation to gender representation and equity in sports and student leadership, including addressing policies, the effects of gender-based violence and challenges faced by Black women in the workplace.

Discussions concentrated on how Black women are conditioned to accept the bare minimum. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University student Ms Wandile Cele said Black women dealt with a number of challenges and were often taught how to be selfish rather than selfless.

Words: Sithembile Shabangu and Sinegugu Ndlovu

Photographs: Albert Hirasen