Sex, Grades and Southern Theory: the Impact of Feminist Research on Higher Education Globally

1. Sex, Grades and Southern Theory: the Impact of Feminist Research on Higher Education Globally Professor Louise Morley Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) University of Sussex, UK (l.morley@sussex.ac.uk)

2. Evaluating Research Quality • Research quality = its policy, social, economic and community impact. • Knowledge exchange/ transfer • Knowledge = X not legitimate in its own right. • must be transferred into diverse contexts and effect auditable/ accountable change. • Rational-purposive understanding of change(Saunders, 2010). • A mechanics of knowing – cause & effect(Hey, 2010).

3. Every now and again I see someone argue that the models for public engagement and impact built for natural sciences are all very well, but can’t possibly apply to us in the social sciences or humanities. Whilst I have some sympathy, some of this amounts to sticking slightly snobby scholarly fingers in pairs of already too-deaf ears and going ‘yada yada yada, I can’t hear you’ at political realities knocking on the doors of lovingly constructed ivory towers(Bell, 2011). Academics are coming under increasing pressure to demonstrate the ‘impact’ of their research. The LSE Identity Project demonstrates the impact that academic research has had on the development of the UK’s identity policy. Our experiences, however, also highlight the potential problems that arise when governments believe that policy impact should only exist on their terms and under their control. In light of the personal and professional attacks we received, should academics contemplate undertaking policy research that aims to have real impact? (Davies, Whitely and Hosein, London School of Economics Identity Project, 2011). Public Engagement or State Regulation?

4. Gender Mainstreaming? • Women and leadership(David, 1998; Hearn, 2009; Husu, 2009; Valian, 1999); • Gender insensitive pedagogy(Welch, 2006); • Women and Technology (Clegg, 2001); • Promotion, professional development and tenure(Acker, 2009; Knights and Richards, 2003); • Knowledge production and dissemination(Hughes, 2002); • Curricula and subject choices(Morley et al, 2006). • Inequalities and gender mainstreaming(Rees, 2006); • Sexual harassment(NUS, 2010).

5. Exchanging Feminist Knowledge • What are the impact measures of feminist research? Quantitative change? • Is research only used/ heard when it continues dominant narratives? • If it disturbs and disrupts, is it dismissed and disqualified? • If feminist research fails to transform practices, does this mean that it has failed as research? • Links between impact, resistance and symbolic and actual violence?

6. Impact or Backlash? • Rolling Stone • Kampala-based newspaper started by journalism graduates from Makerere University, Uganda. • Published story featuring the names and in some cases photographs of 100 gay people under the headline‘Hang Them’. • Makerere University • recipient of substantial funding for gender mainstreaming initiatives from the international donor community • research partner in many feminist projects (e.g.Morley et al, 2006) • David Kato • Well-known Ugandan gay rights activist found beaten to death in Kampala in January 2011. His picture had been published in Rolling Stone.

7. Southern Theory/ Epistemology of the South • How do researchers ensurethe inclusion of southern perspectives in: • knowledge production • development and legitimisation of feminist and social theory? (Connell, 2007; De Sousa Santos and Meneses, 2009, Smith, 1999).

8. Knowledge Exchange - Global South and Global North • How can feminist researchers share knowledge across national and economic boundaries to maximise impact and disrupt the dominant sexual economy?

9. Sexual Harassment

10. Globalising Gender Violence • Australia (Bacchi,1998) • Botswana (Letsie and Tlou, 1997) • Ghana (Manuh, Gariba and Budu, 2007; Morley et al, 2010; Tete-Mensah, 1999) • Hong Kong (Chan, 1999) • India (Bajpai, 1999) • Israel (Kaplan, 2006) • Kenya (Omale, 2002) • Lesotho (Mapetla and Matlosa, 1997) • Nigeria (Bakari and Leach, 2007; Nwadigwe, 2007) • Pakistan (Durrani, 2000) • South Africa (Simelane, 2001) • Southern Africa (Bennett et al. 2007) • Sri Lanka (Jayasena, 2002) • Tanzania (Morley et al. 2010) • UK (Bagilhole and Woodward, 1995) • USA (MacKinnon, 1979; Paludi and Barickman, 1991; Townsley and Geist, 2000) • Sub-Saharan Africa (Hallam, 1994) • Zimbabwe (Shumba and Matina, 2002; Zindi, 1998) • Comparative studies of Sri Lanka, India, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda (Mirsky, 2003).

11. Sexual Harassment… • Is sex discrimination because the act reinforces the social inequality of women to men. • Is heterosexual male to female harassment in the majority of studies. • Creates hostile/toxic learning and working environments. • Involves spatial and cognitive justice, with women having to reflexively self-minimise. • Is rarely formally reported for fear of victimisation, stigmatisation or lack of confidence in procedures. • Constructs women as unreliable narrators. • Negatively impacts on women’s academic engagement, health and well-being. • Naturalises the hierarchical and gendered power relations within universities into a sexual contract. • Is a hidden norm of organisational life.

12. Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania Measuring: • Sociological variables of gender, age, socio-economic status (SES) In Relation to: • Educational Outcomes: access, retention and achievement. In Relation to: • 4 Programmes of Study in each university. • 2 Public and 2 private universities. • Quantitative Data – 100 Equity Scorecards • Qualitative Data - 200 interviews with students and 200 with staff and policymakers. (Morley, Leach and Lugg, 2008; Morley and Lussier, 2009) (www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/wphegt)

13. Sexual Corruption • UK Most male lecturers know that, most years, there will be a girl in class who flashes her admiration and who asks for advice on her essays. What to do? Enjoy her! She’s a perk(Kealey, cited in Reisz, 2009). • Tanzania Being a girl costs sometimes…There are some things in which people can take advantage of you because you are a girl…There are corrupt staff… Certain staffs like if you want help they say you have to do this or that, it is not your fault but he does that so that he can get you… get sex(Female student, public university). • Constructs female sexuality as a commodity/ object of barter . • Produces negative female learner identities. • Reinforces the power of the dominant collective/ assumptive rights of men. • Is a ‘phallic attack’ (Nwadigwe, 2007). • Frequently involves injury denial(Morley, 2010).

14. The Doxa Of Sexual Harassment/ The Discursive Enactment of Hegemony Sexual harassment is a way of life at this university … and people don’t like to talk about it … the female students are very vulnerable to lecturers... and the girls think that’s a legitimate way to get marks. Boys think the girls have an advantage because they can get marks that way and the men think if the girl comes to me and she’s a grown up she’s asking for it ...(female academic manager from the public Ghanaian university).

15. Sexual Harassment = Grade-enhancing Capital • 17 males and 9 females out of 100 students interviewed in Ghana saw gender difference in terms of preferential treatment for women. • Women’s failure = evidence of their lack of academic abilities and preparedness for higher education. • Women’s achievement = attributed to women’s ‘favoured’ position in gendered academic markets.

16. Sometimes, we marvel you know... we wrote certain exams and a particular lady was not in the class but when the results came she had an ‘A’ and you know some of us said we wished we were ladies, you know, it’s like they get special favours(Male student, private university, Ghana). Sometimes you will see a woman or a lady in a class or maybe in a group discussion…you wonder how she got admission? But when the paper comes she performs better than you. …Sometimes some women have been favoured(Male student, public university, Ghana). Reverse Discrimination

17. Reclassifying Sexual Harassment as Women’s Strategic Agency We do have a lot of females who come to this place with a mind to learn do well, get their grades and go out. And we have those who have come with the mind that they are doing everything to get what they want. … so if you are the type of person who really wants to compromise positions in terms of having sex with lecturers to get grades, you will get it. The avenue is there, you will get it…if you want to compromise that much I would say it will definitely favour you.(Female student, private Ghanaian university)

18. Women • Are corrupt/ fraudulent learners. • Are not entitled to higher education. • Are post-feminist strategic agents, not victims. • Construct corporeal style to manipulate essentialised male desire.

19. Impact: Blog in Response to Article on Research Findings in theTimes Higher(Morgan, 2010). • Diversionary Logic Why will these whites only look out for demeaning findings about Africa and not the America and Europe. There are similar finding of were Lectures (sic) in these advance countries Have sexual relation with their students(Samuel 5 February, 2010). • Shifting Locus of Responsibility It is unfortunate the issue of sexual harassment is being narrowed down to only universities in Ghana and Tanzania. This problem is a global social canker which even permeates the church. But the question is, is it only Men who harass Women? Can’t women also harass men? If a female student seduces a male lecturer in order to better her grades, who is at fault?(Hushi 4 February, 2010) . • Normalised sexual desire I think you'll find that women have fantasies about bosses just as much as men do, and also <shock> that some women also like sex, and don't always just do it because a man wants them to. I know this so much and if each woman who wanted me to 'do them hard' 'pretend to be a doctor' 'wear a suit' 'well me off' 'pretend you're teaching me' 'punish me' and then included those who said 'pretend I'm your boss/teacher/professor/a policewoman/a lawyer'... somehow if it goes bad or gets exposed, everything is automatically the fault of the male(godfrey 5 February, 2010).

20. Impact: Dissemination Seminar in Ghana • Academic and Managerial Staff- Policy and Prowess • Stressed existence of policy on sexual harassment. • Some men blamed women students’ ‘indecent dressing’/ suggested that we interviewed the ‘wrong’ students. • Many women wanted to support/ raise awareness. • Students- Activism and Agency • Angry and outraged- started a zero tolerance campaign. • Wanted student union representation on disciplinary hearings. • NGOs- Partnerships • Wanted coalitions to challenge gender violence • Challenged sexist assumptions about dress etc.

21. Summary • The Impact Agenda = simplistic, linear, situated, overlooks resistance, attribution and contexts. • However, lucid, convincing evidence repeatedly ignored. • Abusive practices/ misrecognitions repeatedly enacted. • Impact is not a neutral concept. • A lot of sensationalism, but little transformation. • Considerable global knowledge but very limited exchange! (Hey, 2010) • How to capture the effects of feminist research on communities of practice and activity systems?

22. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer ESRC Seminar Series: ‘Imagining the University of the Future’