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)
28 June, 2016
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).
June, 2016
• A mechanics of knowing – 28
cause
&
effect
(Hey, 2010).
Public Engagement or State
Regulation?
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).
28 June, 2016
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).
28 June, 2016
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?
28 June, 2016
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
28 June, 2016
Rolling Stone.
Southern Theory/
Epistemology of the South
• How do researchers ensure the
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).
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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?
28 June, 2016
Sexual Harassment
28 June, 2016
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).
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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.
28 June, 2016
Widening Participation in Higher
Education in Ghana and Tanzania
Measuring:
• Sociological variables of gender, age, socioeconomic 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)
28 June, 2016
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).
28 June, 2016
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).
28 June, 2016
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.
28 June, 2016
Reverse Discrimination
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
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).
university, Ghana).
28 June, 2016
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)
28 June, 2016
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.
28 June, 2016
Impact: Blog in Response to Article on Research
Findings in the Times 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
28 June, 2016
February, 2010).
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.
28 June, 2016
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?
28 June, 2016
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/
education/cheer
ESRC Seminar Series:
‘Imagining the
University of the
Future’
28 June, 2016