Research raises concern over women’s low representation in law faculty leadership

Jennifer Bassey

Research into women’s participation in legal academia has raised concerns over the low representation of women in leadership positions in Nigerian law faculties, despite the growing number of women entering the academic profession.

The concerns emerged at a research validation workshop in Abuja organised by the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG), under the Advancing Women’s Rights and Breaking Barriers for an Inclusive Future for Women in Law Faculties in Nigeria (WiLAC) Initiative, with technical support from the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) and the Co-Impact project through its Design Phase Grant.

The workshop brought together representatives of four pilot universities — UNILAG, University of Ibadan (UI), Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and Bayero University, Kano (BUK) — to examine emerging findings on the factors affecting women’s progression in legal academia.

Speaking at the event, Dean, Faculty of Law, UNILAG, Prof. Adejoke Oyewunmi, said the research was prompted by the limited representation of women in legal academia, particularly at leadership levels.

Oyewunmi said while the number of women entering academia was increasing, their progression in terms of promotion and access to leadership positions was not following the same trajectory as their male colleagues.

“What we found so far is that it is not for lack of competence at all,” she said.

According to her, women were already being assigned positions of responsibility within Universities and Law faculties, demonstrating their capacity to perform academic and administrative roles.

She, however, noted that disparities became more evident when women sought promotion and advancement into senior leadership positions.

Oyewunmi said some institutional policies that appeared gender-neutral on the surface could have unintended consequences for women when implemented.

“Some of these are attributable to policies, institutional policies that on the face of it appear to be gender neutral. But when it comes to the application of the policy, the implementation of the policy, it is actually prejudicial to women,” she said.

She stressed that the issue should not be whether women could cope with the demands of academic leadership, but whether institutional structures were designed to allow both men and women to participate equitably.

The UNILAG Dean called on Law faculties, Universities, the Ministry of Education, government and community leaders to examine the support systems surrounding women’s academic careers.

She said addressing the disparity required more than introducing policies, stressing that their interpretation and implementation must also be reviewed to ensure women were not excluded.

“It’s also about the interpretation, the application of policies in a way that ensures that everybody has access, that women are not excluded, women are not disenfranchised, their own peculiarities are taken into consideration,” Oyewunmi said.

She cited workplace practices such as scheduling meetings outside regular working hours as an example of how seemingly ordinary institutional arrangements could disadvantage women with family and caregiving responsibilities.

Oyewunmi argued that instead of concluding that women could not cope with leadership responsibilities, universities should consider whether their structures were creating unnecessary barriers to participation.

Also speaking, President of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers, Prof. John Oluwole Aketayo, said changing demographics in legal education made it necessary for universities to prepare for a future in which women would constitute an increasingly significant proportion of legal academics.

Aketayo noted that female students were already performing strongly in law faculties and at the Nigerian Law School, making it difficult to attribute the low representation of women in senior academic positions to lack of competence.

He said Universities must not only recruit women but also create an environment that enables them to remain and progress in the profession.

“If we have to retain the female law academics, we have to put in place measures to make sure that they have a conducive environment in which to do their job,” he said.

Aketayo advocated practical measures, including workplace crèches and accommodation arrangements that take into consideration the pressures faced by academics raising young children.

He also urged female academics to show interest in leadership positions, noting that democratic processes within Universities provide opportunities for qualified academics to contest for such positions.

However, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Prof. Kunle Aina, said he did not believe women faced institutional discrimination at the university.

Aina said women had occupied senior leadership positions at UI, including Dean of the Faculty of Law, Head of Department and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

He said the University’s recruitment and promotion processes were based on established criteria and were designed to provide equal opportunities to qualified candidates.

“For me, women are on the same level with the men,” Aina said, adding that universities should maintain transparent and gender-neutral recruitment and promotion processes.

He urged institutions where women may still encounter structural barriers to examine their systems and emulate practices that promote equal opportunities.

Earlier, Associate Professor at UNILAG and technical partner on the project, Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said the research was designed to understand why women enter Law faculties in significant numbers but experience a decline as they move up the academic hierarchy.

She said the field research had revealed a “sharp drop” in the number of women as they progressed towards Senior academic and leadership positions.

“What are these factors that are bringing about this drop of women within the Faculties of Law and inhibiting them from getting to that leadership level? That is one of the things that we have come to interrogate,” Akiyode-Afolabi said.

She explained that the four Universities participating in the pilot phase were UNILAG, UI, ABU Zaria, and BUK, with plans to expand the initiative to more universities across the country.

According to her, the ultimate objective was to ensure that women were not only entering law faculties but were also able to thrive, progress and attain leadership positions.

The research is expected to provide recommendations on institutional practices, workplace structures, policy implementation and wider social factors that may be affecting women’s progression into Senior academic and leadership positions within Nigerian Law faculties.

The findings also point to the need for Universities and other stakeholders to move beyond simply increasing the number of women recruited into academia and focus on creating conditions that allow them to remain, advance and compete for leadership positions on an equal footing with their male counterparts.