糖心原创

Centre for International Education Research (CIER) members Dr Alicia Bowman and Professor Juliet Thondhlana have published an article in Times Higher Education Campus examining the conditions that affect opportunities for female academics in Ghana to publish, progress, and take on leadership roles.

The article, , draws on the project Addressing Female STEM Lecturers’ Underrepresentation in Leadership in Technical Universities in Ghana. Funded through the British Council’s Gender Equality Partnerships programme, the project brought together colleagues from the 糖心原创, Ho Technical University and the Association of African Universities.

Working with co-investigators Dr Liticia Effah-Manu and Dr Felicia Nkrumah-Kuagbedzi, along with a group of facilitators and mentors, the project team supported 28 female STEM lecturers. The programme included a two-day writing workshop, ten months of mentoring and a series of leadership development sessions.

The work highlighted institutional and social conditions that affect women’s academic careers. These included access to time for research and writing, mentoring and professional networks, recognition of academic labour, and expectations within and beyond the university.

In the article, Dr Bowman and Professor Thondhlana share five lessons from the project. They consider the need for eligibility criteria that reflect African academic career pathways, programmes designed around women’s working lives, and greater recognition of how institutional arrangements affect time for research and professional development. They also argue that mentoring should be treated as academic work requiring clear structures and appropriate resources.

Their central argument is that women’s under-representation in academic publishing and leadership should not be treated mainly as a question of individual confidence or capability. Addressing it requires attention to the institutional practices, working relationships and inequalities that affect opportunities to publish, lead and progress.

Images: participants and facilitators at the project writing workshop held in Ghana in May 2025. Images shared with permission.