Media practitioners have been urged to expand the coverage of women in higher education.
The call was made by speakers including Clinical Professor of Higher Education, New York University, Teboho Moja, Researcher, New York University, Zukiswa Kakana and Director, Education Link Limited, Katherine Forestier, at the 2013 Worldviews Conference in Toronto, Canada.
Speaking at a session tagged “Majority in Enrolment, Minority in Leadership: Expanding the coverage of women in higher education , the speakers observed that though women had begun to occupy leadership roles in universities, the pace was still very slow.
Listing factors working against women leadership positions in the academic world to include gender discrimination and the need for women to combine research with family, the speakers said the media should be destroying the myth that women were either not available or capable of occupying certain positions.
They said media should project more women in higher education, tell different stories about what women are doing in terms of research and change the message they push out about women.
While more women appear to be occupying bigger positions in academics, they said women were still struggling to be appointed as presidents of universities.