Move Over Ms. Professor!

A Review of The Challenges Women Experience In Academia

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify the professional challenges, success factors, work environment, institutional culture, research support and gender explicit practices for women in higher education in a post-apartheid South Africa, thereby contributing toward supporting women in academia at different stages in their careers. The study is contextualized within the context of national and global scholarship on the professional challenges faced by women in the academy. This included theoretical explanations and studies of perceptions of the glass ceiling, the glass wall, the mommy track, academic roles, academic bullying, the queen bee syndrome, strategies for the advancement of women and stress experienced by women. Women in the academy are unique and so too are their experiences and coping strategies. In order to fully understand effective coping strategies adopted by women in higher education; as they progress along their careers, it is integral to understand their lived encounters. This study was qualitative, using in depth interviews and collected evidence from twenty women at different levels at the University of KwaZulu Natal. The results of the study are strengthened by existing scholarship and contextualised with the social construction of reality (Berger and Luckmann, 1979).