Introduction

The "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" Gender Workshop, part of the 2024 Annual Meeting of the ECOGIV project (Ecosystem-based Management of Coastal Marine Resources in Ghana, Indonesia, and Vietnam), financed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), was organized to tackle critical issues related to gender representation and advancement in academia. Held at the Sasakawa Conference Room, at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana, the workshop concentrated on the ongoing challenges women face, especially in fields such as economics and the sciences. It aimed to identify the barriers hindering women's progress in academic and professional roles and focused on developing strategies and recommendations to overcome these obstacles. This report outlines the key discussions, presentations, panel insights, and breakout sessions from the workshop.

Objectives of the Workshop

Identify Barriers to Women's Advancement in Academia Address Gender Disparities in Academic Careers Share Best Practices and Institutional Strategies Promote Policy Recommendations Encourage Networking and Mentorship Foster a Gender-Inclusive Academic Environment

Opening Session

The workshop commenced at 9:10 am with an opening prayer led by Mr. Isaac, followed by welcoming remarks from the Vice Dean of the School of Economics Prof. Camara Obeng. He highlighted the importance of the workshop for the School of Economics, noting that there are currently only two female lecturers there. He stressed that the forum was designed for women to exchange ideas and provide suggestions on how the school could recruit more female academic staff.

The session began with Dr. Gloria Essilfie's remarks, as she welcomed participants and emphasized the workshop's role in catalysing practical solutions to address gender disparities in academia. The Vice Dean highlighted that within the department's current academic staff, only two lecturers are female. He argued that this statistic reflects a broader issue: systemic gender imbalances prevalent in many academic institutions.

The Chairman, Professor Emeritus Awusabo-Asare, then assumed his role and asked participants to watch a short video titled "A Journey to the West". This video set the tone for the workshop by emphasizing the global challenges women encounter in academia and other professional fields.

Keynote Address by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor

 The keynote address of the Pro-Vice Chancellor of UCC delivered by Professor Gloria Agyapong, highlighted several major issues hindering women's progress in academia. She observed that although women are increasingly assuming academic roles globally, their representation remains disproportionately low in fields such as economics, engineering, and the sciences. She attributed this disparity to factors like implicit bias, gender stereotypes, challenges in work-life balance, lack of mentorship, gaps in sponsorship, and institutional barriers.

Implicit Bias and Stereotyping

The speech underscored the deep-rooted societal norms and biases that continue to shape perceptions of women in academic roles. Women still encounter assumptions that they are less competent in research-intensive fields such as economics, engineering, and STEM, or that their primary duty should be caregiving rather than pursuing leadership roles in academia. These unconscious biases influence hiring, promotions, and peer evaluations. Even with equal qualifications, women are frequently seen as less capable or less committed, especially when they have family responsibilities. These often-invisible biases create an uneven playing field, forcing women to work harder to demonstrate their abilities.

Gender Pay Gap

The keynote also highlighted the persistent gender pay gap in academia, where women, even when occupying similar positions as men, are frequently paid less for the same work. This wage disparity is further exacerbated by the lower likelihood of women negotiating their salaries aggressively, often due to societal pressures to be compliant and less confrontational. Consequently, female academics face inequalities not only in their career advancement but also in their financial compensation, which hinders their economic empowerment.

Work-life Balance Challenges

The Pro-VC emphasized that balancing work responsibilities with family life is a major barrier to women's advancement in academia. Many institutions lack family-friendly policies, such as flexible work hours, affordable childcare services, and adequate parental leave. These challenges disproportionately impact women, who are often expected to shoulder primary caregiving responsibilities. In an academic environment where success is largely measured by research output, long hours, and publications, women struggle to compete equally with men who do not face the same caregiving demands.

Institutional Barriers and Lack of Support

The keynote address highlighted the institutional barriers that impede women's professional growth. Many academic institutions lack essential support systems, such as mentorship programs, targeted training initiatives, and dedicated research funding for female faculty. Furthermore, informal networks of influence and opportunity within academia are often male-dominated, sidelining women from key decision-making processes and limiting their prospects for advancement.

 The Pro-Vice-Chancellor concluded with a powerful message: "When women thrive, academia thrives. Let’s break the glass ceiling."

Presentation by Prof. Claire Armstrong

Prof. Claire Armstrong, principal coordinator of the ECOGIV project, delivered a presentation titled Gender in Academia: Experiences from Mentoring at the Arctic University of Norway (UiT). She began by highlighting Norway’s strong standing in the UNDP Gender Inequality Index, where it ranks second globally. However, she noted that despite this high ranking, Norway remains committed to further progress in achieving gender equality in academia.

Prof. Armstrong’s presentation delved into institutional gender disparities in Norwegian academia, emphasizing that even a top-ranking country continues to face challenges. A key focus was the UiT Mentor Program, a structured initiative designed to foster career advancement through a formal agreement between mentors and mentees. This program sets clear objectives, including the development of five-year career plans, problem-solving strategies, and preparation for leadership roles in academia. Prof. Armstrong underscored the critical role of active listening, adaptability, and personalized guidance in effective mentorship, highlighting their significance in driving meaningful change.

Some key issues identified in her presentation include:

Underrepresentation of Women in Senior Positions

Although more women are entering academia, a significant decline is evident at higher academic ranks. Prof. Armstrong's data revealed that while women constitute the majority of undergraduate and postgraduate students, only a small fraction advance to full professorships or tenured positions. This disparity is largely attributed to the "leaky pipeline" phenomenon, where women exit academia at critical career stages due to insufficient support, particularly during childbearing years and early career development.

Limited Mentorship and Networking Opportunities

Prof. Armstrong emphasized the critical shortage of mentorship opportunities for women in academia, a key factor in career advancement. She noted that mentorship programs are often informal and predominantly male-dominated, leaving many female academics without the guidance and professional networks essential for their progression. This lack of support is particularly pronounced in male-dominated fields, where women frequently experience isolation and limited access to sponsors who could advocate for their promotions, research funding, and leadership opportunities.

Unequal Parental Leave Policies

Prof. Armstrong also addressed the shortcomings in parental leave policies within academic institutions. She highlighted that many policies fail to provide women with sufficient time to recover from childbirth and care for their children, while others are structured in ways that discourage men from taking parental leave. This imbalance reinforces traditional gender roles, placing the primary caregiving responsibility on women and significantly hindering their ability to advance in academic careers.

Recommendations by Prof. Claire Armstrong

• Affirmative action to correct historical imbalances.

Prof. Claire Armstrong underscored the significance of affirmative action in addressing the longstanding underrepresentation of women in academia. She advocated for targeted initiatives, such as gender quotas or reserved positions, to create equal opportunities and promote women's access to academic roles and leadership positions, ensuring a more balanced and inclusive academic environment.

• Policy development that actively promotes gender equality

She stressed the importance of institutions implementing and enforcing policies that foster gender equality. These include flexible working arrangements, equitable promotion criteria, and parental leave policies designed to address the specific challenges women face in balancing career and family responsibilities.

• Mentorship programs tailored to women’s career advancement.

Prof. Armstrong advocated for mentorship programs specifically designed to support women's career progression, offering guidance, skills development, and networking opportunities. These programs help women overcome barriers, providing personalized support to navigate academic challenges and reach senior positions.

Presentation by Prof. Quach Khanh Ngoc

At 9:50 a.m., Prof. Quach Khanh Ngoc shared her experience in promoting female academic advancement at Nha Trang University (NTU), Vietnam. She outlined NTU’s program designed to support women in progressing through academic ranks, from PhD to Associate Professor and ultimately to Professor. Prof. Quach highlighted the university’s targeted policies and incentives aimed at addressing gender disparities and fostering a more inclusive and supportive academic environment:

Structural Challenges in Career Progression

Prof. Ngoc highlighted the complex and bureaucratic nature of promotion processes in academia, which disproportionately disadvantage women. She explained that female academics often experience longer promotion timelines due to career interruptions related to childbirth, caregiving, or limited access to research resources. Additionally, the high publication expectations in competitive, male-dominated fields tend to favour men, placing women at a disadvantage when it comes to meeting promotion criteria.

Gender-based Publication Incentives

NTU has implemented a system of financial incentives to encourage female academics to publish in high-impact journals. Prof. Ngoc explained that female faculty members at NTU receive a $1,500 bonus for each publication in ISI/Scopus-indexed journals. This initiative aims to enhance research productivity among women, increasing their visibility and improving their prospects for promotion. The program has had a positive effect on boosting female representation in senior academic roles, directly addressing the publication gap that often impedes women’s career advancement.

Overburdened Female Academics

Prof. Ngoc also identified the overburdening of female lecturers with teaching and administrative duties as a significant challenge. This workload often leaves little time for research, a crucial aspect of career progression in academia. Women are frequently expected to take on additional "invisible labour" tasks, such as student advising and committee work, which, while important, do not directly contribute to their promotion prospects.

The NTU program focuses on:

Developing research themes that align with female lecturers' interests. Writing and publishing in high-impact journals. Capacity building for research teams, helping women expand their professional networks.

To address these issues, NTU has introduced several actions:

Reducing teaching responsibilities to give lecturers more time for research. Offering bonuses for publishing in ISI/Scopus-indexed journals. Partnering with the NORHED project to establish mentorship programs, provide conference funding, and share experiences among female academics.

Panel Discussion: Gender Dynamics and Structural Inequalities

The second part of the workshop featured a panel discussion with esteemed professors from the left Prof. Theresa,  Prof. Claire Armstrong, Emeritus Prof. Awusabo-Asare, Prof. Quach Khanh Ngoc, and Prof. Georgina Yaa Oduro. The panel discussion brought several structural issues to the forefront:

Biological Factors and Career Interruptions

Professor Theresa emphasized that biological factors, such as pregnancy and childbearing, create significant career interruptions for women. She explained that maternity and caregiving responsibilities, coupled with structural barriers in academia, prevent many women from breaking the glass ceiling. These challenges disproportionately affect women, slowing their research output and hindering their ability to secure grants or meet the publication requirements essential for tenure and promotion.

Underrepresentation in Leadership

Professor Awusabo-Asare highlighted that structural issues in academia, such as the lack of inclusive degree nomenclature (e.g., "Bachelor" and "Master"), reflect the male dominance in the field. He emphasized that gender representation at higher academic levels remains alarmingly low, citing the example in the university, where only four out of 21 deans are women.

Structural challenges

Professor Awusabo Asare pointed out that academia's structural issues, such as the absence of inclusive degree nomenclature (e.g., "Bachelor" and "Master"), reflect the male dominance in academia. He emphasized that gender representation at higher levels of academia remains low, citing that out of 21 deans at the university, only four are female.

Mentorship and support

Professor Georgina Yaa Oduro and Dr. Dora, Vice President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), both emphasized the importance of structured mentorship programs. Dr. Dora pointed out that some women prefer male mentors over female mentors, underscoring the complexity of gender dynamics within mentorship relationships.

Exclusion from Academic Networks

The panellists also discussed how women are often excluded from informal academic networks, which are essential for career advancement. These male-dominated networks offer access to research collaborations, mentorship, and leadership opportunities, creating significant barriers for women seeking to break through the glass ceiling.

Support Structures for Women

The importance of formal support structures, such as mentorship programs and gender-sensitive policies, was a key theme of the discussion. The panellists unanimously agreed that institutions must prioritize the development of formal mentorship initiatives and offer gender sensitivity training for male colleagues to cultivate a more inclusive academic environment.

Key Questions and Responses

During the panel, participants raised critical questions:

On Bonuses for Publications: A participant asked for details on the implementation of financial bonuses for female publications, to which Prof. Armstrong responded by emphasizing the importance of institutional commitment to creating standardized incentives to promote gender equality. Promotion requirements for women: Another participant asked whether the requirements for female promotions could be adjusted. Prof. Quach Khanh Ngoc highlighted the need for policy changes to ease the promotion process for women, particularly in terms of publication expectations. Women's role as their own enemies: When asked whether women hinder each other's progress, Professor Theresa suggested that women must first take the initiative and then support each other in their academic journeys.

Breakout Sessions

In the third part of the workshop, participants were divided into smaller groups to discuss specific themes related to gender in academia. Each group was tasked with outlining strategies and proposing actionable solutions to break the glass ceiling. During the breakout sessions, participants shared ideas for overcoming gender disparities in academia. The four groups suggested concrete actions, including offering flexible work schedules, increasing women’s representation in decision-making roles, and reducing the administrative burden on female lecturers.

 Group 1

• Collaboration among females within and outside the institution
• Playground for faculty
• Quota for females
• Reducing workload for female lecturers on study leave
• Establish incentive packages for publishing in Scopus
• Reward mentors that publish with mentees.

Group 2

• Education and sensitization on gender issues.
• Leverage on legal provision
• Need for gender-sensitive men to be part of gender discussions and committees.
• Setting up of “Women in Academia Wing”
• Gender curriculum for basic education.
• Multiple mentorships should be encouraged.

Group 3

• Attitudinal change.
• The desire to be a superwoman.
• Incest on policy change and policy implementation.
• Mentorship.
• Female committees at the department level like “Female coffee meeting”
• Conducive environment like

Group 4

• New staff should be allowed to choose their mentors.
• Association to champion the course of women in academia.
• Create awareness.
• Attitudinal change
• Parental leave should be extended.

Recommendations

The following key recommendations emerged from the workshop:

Workload adjustments: Female lecturers should be allowed flexible work schedules, including closing earlier in the day to manage family responsibilities. Flexible Work Policies: UCC should implement policies that allow female academics to manage their family responsibilities while maintaining their professional growth. Female collaboration: Institutions should encourage collaboration among female academics, both within and outside their institutions. Enhanced Mentorship: Establish formal mentorship programs that allow female academics to choose mentors who understand their unique challenges. To specific, institutional arrangements should made to allow new lecturers to select extra mentors recognized by UCC to provide a more tailored and supportive experience. Capacity building: Pro-bono capacity-building programs should be developed to enhance the research and leadership skills of female academics. Financial Support for Research: Provide financial incentives for female academics to publish in high-impact journals, increasing their visibility and research output.

Conclusion

The workshop uncovered and analyzed the key structural, societal, and institutional obstacles preventing women from advancing to senior academic positions. A major objective was to explore the causes of gender inequality in academia. Key issues, such as implicit bias, the gender pay gap, lack of mentorship, and challenges related to work-life balance, were identified as significant barriers hindering women from breaking the glass ceiling. Participants shared insights from various colleges and departments, generating actionable recommendations for the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to implement policies supporting women’s advancement, including flexible promotion criteria and financial support for female researchers.

UCC was also encouraged to establish both formal and informal mentorship and networking opportunities, providing women in academia with the guidance and support needed for career growth and leadership roles. Ultimately, the workshop aimed to promote a culture of inclusivity within academic institutions, ensuring equal opportunities for women to excel in their careers without facing disproportionate barriers.

The Gender Workshop concluded with a call to action for academic institutions to adopt inclusive policies, mentorship programs, and institutional reforms to support women’s progression in academia. It was emphasized that achieving gender equality in academia benefits not only women but the entire academic community.

In conclusion, the Gender Workshop at the ECOGIV Conference 2024 highlighted the numerous barriers women face in academia, especially in traditionally male-dominated fields. However, through mentorship, policy changes, and increased collaboration, women can break the glass ceiling and thrive in academia. The workshop reinforced the idea that when women succeed, academia and society as a whole benefit.

Professor Awusabo-Asare closed the workshop at 12:37 p.m., thanking participants for their engagement and contributions. Della Aku Tunyo delivered the vote of thanks and Mr. Isaac gave the closing prayer bringing the session to a close.

 Group Photography at the end of the workshop

Reporter: Dr Gloria Essilfie

University of Cape Coast