The affirmative action programme at U.Z.: gender and equity issues

Abstract

The Affirmative Action Programme at the University of Zimbabwe was implemented in 1995 after a realization of the gross inequalities that existed between male and female students in the University of Zimbabwe. Female staff and students were generally under represented across all faculties at the University of Zimbabwe, comprising only 25% of the total enrollment. In the science and technical faculties female students are grossly under represented and they comprise less than 20% of total enrollment in the sciences. This chapter will seek to discover some of the underlying reasons explaining the numerical inferiority of female students and suggest some intervention strategies aimed at encouraging or increasing the number of females entering the science and technical faculties.