A new research into women’s participation in legal academia has raised concerns over the low representation of women in leadership positions in Nigerian law faculties, despite an increasing number of women entering the academic profession.

The research is examining the institutional and social factors that may be responsible for the decline in women’s representation as they progress from entry-level academic positions to senior roles and leadership.

The findings were discussed in Abuja at a research validation workshop convened by the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG), under the Advancing Women’s Rights and Breaking Barriers for an Inclusive Future for Women in Law Faculties in Nigeria (WiLAC) Initiative.

The workshop brought together representatives of four pilot universities — the University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and Bayero University, Kano (BUK) to review the research findings and examine possible explanations for the gender gap in legal academic leadership.

Speaking on the findings, the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Professor Adejoke Oyewunmi, said the research was prompted by the limited representation of women in legal academia, particularly at the leadership level.

Oyewunmi said while the number of women entering academia was increasing, their progression was not on the same trajectory as that of their male colleagues in terms of promotion and access to leadership positions.

She said the research deliberately avoided making assumptions about the causes of the disparity, but sought to establish whether institutional policies, their implementation and other factors were affecting women’s career progression.

“What we found so far is that it is not for lack of competence at all,” Oyewunmi said.

According to her, women were being entrusted with positions of responsibility within universities and law faculties, indicating that they had demonstrated their capacity to perform academic and administrative roles.

She, however, said the disparity became more evident when women sought promotion or advancement into leadership positions.

Oyewunmi said some institutional policies that appeared gender-neutral could have unequal consequences for women when implemented.

“Some of these are attributable to policies, institutional policies that on the face of it appear to be gender neutral. But when it comes to the application of the policy, the implementation of the policy, it is actually prejudicial to women,” she said.

She cited the timing of meetings and academic activities as an example, noting that meetings scheduled outside official working hours could disproportionately affect women who may also have family and caregiving responsibilities.

The dean said the question should therefore not simply be whether women could cope with such demands, but whether institutional structures were designed to enable both men and women to participate equitably.

She called on universities, law faculties, the Ministry of Education, government and community leaders to examine the support systems surrounding women’s academic careers.

Oyewunmi stressed that addressing the problem required more than introducing policies, adding that the interpretation and implementation of existing policies must also be scrutinised to ensure that women were not inadvertently excluded.

Also speaking, the President of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT), Prof. John Oluwole Aketayo, said the changing demographics of legal education made it necessary for universities to prepare for a future in which women would constitute an increasingly significant proportion of legal academics.

He noted that female students were already recording strong performances in law faculties and at the Nigerian Law School, making it difficult to attribute the low number of women in senior academic positions to a lack of competence.

“If we have to retain the female law academics, we have to put in place measures to make sure that they have a conducive environment in which to do their job,” Aketayo said.

He advocated practical measures such as workplace crèches and accommodation arrangements that take into account the pressures faced by academics raising young children.

Meanwhile, the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Prof. Kunle Aina, said he did not believe women faced institutional discrimination at the university, noting that women had occupied senior leadership positions at the university, including Dean of the Faculty of Law and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

He however urged other universities to adopt transparent and gender-neutral recruitment and promotion processes.

“For me, women are on the same level with the men, the university’s recruitment system provided equal opportunities to qualified candidates,” Aina argued.

Earlier, Associate Professor at UNILAG, Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, stressed the need for system change to enable more women in leadership roles at the law faculties in universities, she added that the research was seeking to understand the point at which women begin to fall out of the academic leadership pipeline.

“The field research showed that women were entering law faculties in significant numbers but experienced a “sharp drop” as they progressed through the academic hierarchy.

“What are these factors that are bringing about this drop of women within the Faculties of Law and inhibiting them from getting to that leadership level? That is one of the things that we have come to interrogate,” she said.

The research is expected to inform recommendations addressing the institutional practices, workplace structures and wider social factors that may be affecting women’s progression into senior academic and leadership positions within Nigerian law faculties.