Patriarchal and racist institutional culture at universities must be challenged visibly, a conference for women working in higher education has heard. When a man is being sexist, call him out on it immediately and say: ‘No, I won’t let you talk to me like that’,” Maseeeng Papashane, a lecturer in the education faculty at the University of the Free State, said on Monday.
“But also use the formal platforms at your university like the human resources office to address things like sexual harassment,” she said.
These are just two of the ways to challenge the everyday events that contribute to the patriarchal and racist institutional culture that still exist at many of South Africa’s universities, Papashane said.