Focus on Gender Parity

As underscored in the ‘Diversity and Inclusion: Towards Building a Diverse, Equitable and Global University’ report, Gender Parity is one of the 16 indicators of diversity and inclusion at JGU.

Gender parity and equity is a central goal for JGU in its pursuit to establish institutional spaces that value and embrace diversity in all forms and manifestations. Building diverse student, academic and non-academic staff bodies has been one of our key areas of focus. In a short period of time we have accomplished many milestones in increasing participation of women in our staff and faculty positions both at the entry and senior leadership positions.

JGU has been able to attract outstanding women academics, scholars and researchers as faculty members spread across all schools. Women are also well represented in leadership roles at JGU. This is evident in the number of women across the university in a range of functions – over 46 percent of our students and 49 percent faculty are women, and women hold 40 percent of leadership roles within the faculty, and 29 percent in non-teaching leadership roles. is has resulted through a conscious effort to recruit

more women students and staff by JGU’s admissions and outreach team, and human resources team.

This focus is reinforced through institutional mechanisms and processes that are designed to retain, sustain and strengthen gender equity, and address common challenges that face working women and men, employees with children and those who are primary or secondary care-givers, and employees who face unexpected health or family crises. For instance, employee welfare initiatives at the university include on campus daycare and playschool services, flexible working hours and child-care leave. University-wide committees complement these efforts by providing formal processes through which discrimination or harassment in the workplace can be addressed.

In JGU’s second decade since founding, we are conscious that we strengthen our performance on all indicators of diversity, inclusion and equity within the institution. Over the next ten years, we will invest in sustaining and further enhancing existing gender diversity at JGU. This will be achieved through targets that include gender equity ratio of 1:1 among our teaching staff.

Advancing equity within the institution will necessitate that greater representation is achieved among the student and staff communities through conscious efforts; and talented students, researchers and staff members see JGU as an equitable and inclusive institution where the possibilities remain open to learn, teach, think, innovate, explore and collaborate.

Our institutional progress will be premised on consciously encouraging and promoting the participation of women in decision making processes and bodies at JGU. Over the next half decade, we aim to have women occupying at least 45 percent of the university’s leadership positions. We will also work towards increasing parity between male and female non teaching staff, aiming to achieve a gender equity ratio of 7:5 (male: female).

We will strengthen resource investment in research, teaching and engagement on gender rights and advocacy, rights of sexual and gender minorities, and related issues.