Abstract:
This paper, presented at the 2004 Colloquium on Research and Higher Education Policy, is part of a larger research programme examining interventions for gender equity in relation to access, staff development and curriculum transformation in Uganda, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and South Africa.  Morley focusses on issues arising from policies and practices to enhance women's access to higher education in the five participating countries.  She examines the position that gender holds within the policy-making environments in the participating countries.  The paper mentions a number of cultural challenges facing gender equity and access to higher education.  These include the belief that the biology of women's bodies is incompatible with academic pursuits and certain types of work; strongly-held views on women entering non-traditional disciplines; gender violence-often considered an inevitable price women must pay for entering traditional male reserve spaces.  The author highlights a number of interventions for change to enable greater gender equity and Morley is keen to point that accessing higher education is not an end in itself and there are multiple contextual challenges involved in widening women's participation.    

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Morley, Louise (2004). Gender and access in commonwealth higher education Presented at the First Colloquium on Research and Higher Education Policy, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France, 1-3 December.