WLA 2018 Report - Draft 1-2

A N f WLA’ F
WLA was founded by 3 female, founding class students at ALU. After completing the Leadership
Core, we felt armed and ready to conquer the world beyond ALU! Our first work experiences,
however, revealed to us the bitter reality of gender disparity. From being overwhelmed by the lack of
females in senior level leadership to being saddened by microaggressions towards women in the
workplace. We started to question how tertiary institutions could better prepare women to excel in
the workplace and how we could take action right now.
That is when the idea of Women Lead Africa (WLA) was born. WLA is an organisation dedicated to
better preparing women to excel in the working world in the public and private sector, ultimately
contributing to the economic empowerment of the female gender and the eradication of gender
inequality.
When we analysed the numbers, we learned that while representation (ie: equality in terms of
numbers) is important, it does not equate to equality.
For example, while women make up 45% of the labour force in Africa (McKinsey, 2016), only 5% of
CEOs are women. We learned that we need not only an equal number of women in the labour force
but also equal power distribution and representation in leadership across sectors. Similarly, 41% of
the ALU student body is female. However, there are no quantified indicators showing that female
and male students have the same learning, social and environmental experience and standing.
2

Therefore, there is a need to unravel the
uncertainty around the female student
experience and and put numbers around gender
parity issues in ALU. The WLA report aims to do
just this by analysing the female student
experience holistically by identifying key
differences between the female and male
student experience.
F Pf
Our hope is that this will enable us to identify
key challenges in the female student experience
at ALU, which if rectified, can significantly
empower students to not only excel at ALU but
also beyond.
Globally, while more women than men were
enrolling in universities in 97 countries, women
only made up majority of leaders in 4 countries
(World Economic Forum, 2016). We believe that
by improving the female student experience at
university level, we can better prepare women
to excel in the workplace and increase women in
leadership.
The WLA report is a powerful tool to ensure that
the female student experience is optimized
through deliberate implementation of
data-driven, research-based insights and
recommendations. This shall in turn enable
ALU’s leadership, staff and students alike to
have a clear picture of key improvement areas
and take informed action steps to creating a
more optimal female student experience at ALU.
Carryl Masibo (left) is a Computer Science
student at ALU. She aims to add value to the
continent by influencing Gender Equality policy
changes (SDG 5) and Decent Work & Economic
Growth (SDG 8) using a data centred approach.
Melissa Kariuki (middle) is a Business
Management student at ALU. She is determined
to drive change on the African continent through
leading groundbreaking, technology-centred
companies and uplifting women and girls.
Hawi Tiyo (right) is ar Business Management
student at ALU. She is passionate about Africa's
transformation and aspires to create impact
through strategy advisory work focused on
women and youth empowerment.
WLA
3

Executive
summary
5
Gender
landscape at 8
ALU
Brief history of
African Women 10
4
Contents

12
Findings
24
Methodology
25
Conclusion
27
Acknowledge
ments
5

Executive Summary
The McKinsey Global Institute report (MGI, 2017)
found that narrowing the gender gap in the
global labour market would not only be
equitable in the broadest sense but would also
double women’s contribution to global GDP
growth between 2014 and 2025.
Achieving gender equality is paramount to
Women Lead Africa’s goals, and it’s existence.
WLA has established that indeed no society can
develop sustainably without transforming the
distribution of opportunities, resources and
choices for males and females so that they have
equal power to shape their own lives and in turn
contribute to their communities.
The WLA ALU Gender report sought to
understand the female student experience in
tertiary institutions. The findings of this report
shall, in turn, inform key institutional reforms
that shall optimize the female student university
experience; ultimately, better preparing women
for the workplace as well as leadership
positions. The research consists of both primary
and secondary data; namely - online surveys
utilising a stratified sample, six focus group
discussions and online secondary research.
Our research proved that while in a few cases
there was no significant difference between the
male and female student experiences at ALU, for
a majority of the key research areas there was a
statistically significant difference.
The key findings were:
1. Female students are underrepresented in
STEM majors
2. Female students at ALU are less confident
than their male counterparts,
3. Male students are more comfortable
networking than their female
counterparts,
4. There is no gender disparity in risk-taking
and entrepreneurial behaviour between
either gender,
5. Unconscious bias is prevalent and affects
females disproportionately,
6. In teams, females take support roles
more often than males,
7. Female students believe they don’t have
equal opportunities.
What can ALU do based on the findings?
Each key insight highlighted in the report has
been coupled with a recommended next step.
The report outlines recommendations with the
following stakeholders as key drivers of change:
● Student Life
● The Registrar’s Office
● The Learning Teams
● Career Development
● Students & staff at large
6

● Vcvdfvr
7

Overall Gender Landscape at ALU
The ALU student body is gender diverse. ALU’s female students, who were considered in this
investigation, comprise of 41% of the student body. However, a further analysis of the split between
majors indicates that females are underrepresented in the STEM majors (Computer Science and
Engineering). On the other hand, Social Sciences has the highest composition of female students
(68%)despite being the degree with the lowest uptake (15.9%) among ALU students in general.
Through our focus groups, it was revealed that female students are more likely to face
discouragement from their families when opting to study a STEM degree.
“My dad is an Engineer and he told me that women should not study engineering. He
said he, himself wouldn’t even hire a female engineer. I decided to study it anyway,
but I didn’t tell him until a year later.”
-Female STEM student at ALU
Furthermore, female students expressed hesitating when selecting a STEM degree as they were
unsure of their ability to succeed. What we found to be invaluable was female students receiving
encouragement to study a STEM degree either from a faculty member or a professional in the field,
particularly a female.
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Notably, it was revealed that in classes where one gender is the significant minority, that gender’s
learning experience is compromised. Male students in Social Sciences cited feeling they could not
speak freely and females in Computer Science cited feeling like there was a “boys club” which they
could not access.
Thus, ALU can look into intentionally improving gender balance in degree programs through
degree info sessions which exhibit both males and females in the profession. Research has found
that students are more likely to feel confident pursuing a certain major when they have seen
examples of people of their gender succeeding in that major.
“Social Science major has 6 guys and 21 female students. In that space ,
what happens is that as a male, we had to think more critically about what
we have to say, what implicit biases we have and etc.But this impedes my
learning because there will be a backlash for almost every opinion I express
in class “
- Male Social Sciences Student
9

Brief History of State of African
Women
In many countries across the world, the role of women has been minimized based on the long
tradition of their exclusion from education and development. The participation of particularly African
women in economic, social, political and cultural sectors was affected by cultural barriers and low
expectations by and of females. Organisational and institutional cultures of universities, in general,
were established to meet the needs of male faculty and students. Patterns of leadership, beliefs,
symbols, structures, ceremonies, power and information flow (Carrol and Mills, 2006) are modelled
on masculine expectations and experiences and this in turn resulted in very few African women in
tertiary institutions over the years.
Africa’s new investments in higher education are the result of significant strides in expanding access
to primary and secondary schooling for both genders. Yet the ‘massification of higher education’
across the continent has not yielded comparable developments towards gender parity as measured
by the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) despite the significant change globally. According to the
2015 GGGI, Sub-Saharan Africa has made the most progress toward narrowing its educational
attainment gender gap over 2014. But disparities between male and female higher education gross
enrollment rate (GER) ratios persist.
Rwanda, the highest ranked African country (6th) by GGGI has a male ratio of 8.64% and a female
one of 6.64%. Chad, the lowest ranked African country, on the other hand (142nd) has a male GER of
5.74% and a female GER of 1.4%. The research identifies gender inequality in higher institutions of
learning as a key factor that contributes to the marginalisation of women in the workplace.
The last 60+ years have seen the number of women in the workplace globally significantly increase.
Women entered the economic system to supplement the male earning capacity which had been lost
to the two world wars. Despite the evolution globally, African women were still relatively
underrepresented in the workplace with only significant changes happening in the last 10 years.
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African women continue to be the biggest contributors to the informal labour force in their
pursuit of contributing towards economic development. Women have been confined to
small-scale operations in the informal sector and hence their average incomes are relatively
low
Recent research by Pew Research Center showed that, on an analysis of labor statistics in 114
countries, women made up 40% of the workforce in more than 80 countries globally. More
surprisingly, the top 5 countries with the highest female representation in the workforce are
all in Sub-Saharan Africa. Zimbabwe and Malawi lead the list with more than 52% of female
share in the labor force, followed by The Gambia (50.8%), Liberia (50.6%) and Tanzania (50.5%)
Despite this evolution, women are still largely underrepresented in leadership positions in
various corporations hence a need for institutions to start grooming women for the workplace
as early as they can. As women begin to occupy some powerful positions in the world,
prioritizing access to higher education for African women remains essential to ensuring that
they acquire the knowledge and advanced skills critical to take our seat at the table of global
leadership.
ALU definitely is playing a role in changing this narrative. Nearly half of the ALU student
population comprises of females. However, looking closely reveals a less rosy picture and
emphasizes that a lot more can be done to ensure that female students reach their optimum.
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Female students at
ALU are less
confident than their
male peers
An 8 year study by Wiebke Bleidorn, Ph.D. (2015) which
looked at data from over 985,000 men and women
across 48 countries found that universally, men are
more confident than women. Interestingly, the study
found that the magnitude of this confidence gap
between men and women was bigger in more
developed, egalitarian countries. The researcher
speculates that women in developed countries are
more likely to compare themselves to men, who still
hold more power universally.
Confidence can be defined as our belief in our ability to
succeed at a given task. A lack of it drives risk aversion
and makes one less willing to pursue new challenges
and making one more cautious in their career ambitions
ultimately leading to missed opportunities.
“
While having more confident
women won’t eliminate the
unconscious bias or stop more
self-assured outspoken women
being called bossy or bitchy (where
men are simply labeled assertive).
However, it will empower more
women to call out bias when they
see it, put themselves forward and
take more risks that men do. This
will see more women moving up
the ladder which, in turn, will
provide the more much needed role
models, mentors, sponsors and
inspiration for women following
below.”
- Margie Warrell, Author at Forbes
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Majority of students at ALU believe that confidence is
crucial to success. While 60% of students rate males and
females as equally confident on average, only 3.5%
students rate women as more confident. This is in stark
contrast to the 23% of respondents who rate men as
more confident.
On a similar note, female students believe that their
confidence is highly affected by the ALU environment
and culture. Females also feel more pressure to perform
as well as their peers than their male counterparts and
feel significantly less accomplished than their peers.
Thus, it can be concluded that female students at ALU are less confident than their male peers owing
to their belief that they’re not as accomplished as their peers. Since ALU’s environment has more of
an effect on females’ confidence, this can be leveraged to actively increase their confidence.
Key Next Steps
Since ALU’s environment has more of an effect on females’ confidence, this can be leveraged to
actively increase their confidence. Confidence is a very personal and as such, the development of it
has to be driven by the individual. However, ALU can actively create spaces where both male and
female students are can discuss their various ambitions, form plans to achieve them and actively
overcome internal challenges, such as confidence, and external ones. This could be by bringing back
Advisory Squads with more structure such that the above can be implemented and measured.
Notably, research has shown that confidence is volitional (ie: it can be built) with consistent effort
(Warrel, 2015). Thus, with intentional effort, the confidence gap between male and female students
can be narrowed.
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Male students are more comfortable
networking than females
Networking is an essential skill in today’s world. Studies have shown that up to 80% of jobs are
never advertised; instead they are filled by word of mouth. Hence it is important to create
meaningful relationships (AAMD ,2017). At ALU, male students enjoy networking more than female
students. Based on a scale of 1-10 with regards to enjoyment of networking, 67.8% of the male
students rated a 5 and above in comparison to 52.1% of female students.
Similarly, male students believe that they are better at networking than female students. It is
interesting to note that no female ranked their networking skills at 9 or 10, in comparison to 15% of
the male participants. This percentage increases for men when asked to rate their skills in
comparison to their peers whereas that of the female students stays at 0. However, it was
interesting to note that male students think females are more favored when it comes to
networking with ALU guests.
“I think the guests are more receptive to female students than males, in
terms of follow up, opportunities etc. I feel like the fact that most of the
leader[s] are men plays a role. I think they would feel like they are more
of a man when more females approach them so they give them more
attention. Female leaders might also tend to favor upcoming women
leaders as a means of positive discrimination.”
- 4th year Students
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Finally, only 7% of females students believe their peers perceive them as good networkers in
comparison to 32% of male students. This ties to the findings that women are less confident than
men and are perceived to be so. Hence, it can be concluded that female students at ALU are less
comfortable with networking than their male counterparts.
% of students who believe their peers perceive them as good
networkers per gender
32%
7%
Key Next Steps
The ALU Career Development department could set up a series of continuous sessions on
networking which employ a Gender Mainstreaming* approach. That is to say that while the
sessions should highlight best practices for networking, they should also pay mind to how
networking may differ for people of different genders and initiate discussions on how
gender-specific networking challenges can be overcome. Notably, we recommend still
conducting networking sessions with both genders together. This will allow for the discussions
to be more critical and diverse in perspective and it will enable both genders to develop more
empathy towards one another.
*Note: Gender mainstreaming is the concept of assessing the different implications for people of different genders
of any planned programme or policy action,.
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No gender disparity in risk-taking
and entrepreneurial behaviour
Entrepreneurship is one of the self-employment avenues that women are highly underrepresented in
across the globe (World Economic Forum, 2017). Comparatively, ALU has a fair gender
representation of students in its entrepreneurial activities. About half of students - both female and
male - are fully comfortable implementing an entrepreneurial idea they are interested in, with 28%
from each gender having already started a club or launched an initiative during their time at ALU.
Students who have not started an initiative or a club state lack of interest as the reason.
Nonetheless, they believe the ALU environment is conducive for and fully supportive of student-led
initiatives.
According to the World Economic Forum (2017), risk adversity is on of the characters that holds
women back from venturing into self-employment. More so, it is said to limit one’s entrepreneurial
venture to less economically productive sectors as compared to male entrepreneurs. At ALU, both
male and female students exhibit a strong risk-taking behavior; with 70.2% of male students and
75.6% of female students associating risk with adventure and opportunity. While this difference is
statistically insignificant, it is notable that female students at ALU are risk-seeking.
16

This appreciation of risk could be owing to
the fact that ALU has attracted students who
are keen on entrepreneurship and has
created a supportive environment where they
can thrive. A student in one of our focus
group discussion affirms this:
“The fact that ALU encourages
entrepreneurship is one of the major reasons
that made me decide to come here’’.
-Business Management student
Key Next Steps
To keep up the momentum of entrepreneurship
within ALU, programs such as the SVP are
invaluable. The gender parity achieved in ALU’s
entrepreneurial ecosystem is of a fortunate
serendipity rather than the result of deliberate
action. As such, it is recommended that SVP
actively measures and monitors the gender
composition of participants in the program as it
scales up. Furthermore, SVP experience feedback
surveys should be analysed with a gender lense
to proactively identify any disparities.
Key Next Steps
Key Next Steps
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Unconscious bias
are prevalent and
affect both
genders
Unconscious biases are reflexive, social
stereotypes about various groups of people
(Forbes, 2018). These biases, which are usually
unnoticeable, take the form of quick
judgements that happen outside of our control.
Unconscious biases left unchecked can turn
into discrimination.
The Unconscious Bias section of the WLA
survey aimed to identify what stereotypes ALU
students believed to be true of male and
female students. The study contrasted this to
students’ ideas of what it takes to be successful
and thus uncovered how their biases shape
their beliefs of which gender is most likely to
be successful.
“
“In as much as I’d like to say it
[sexism] doesn't exist, there are
times people make statements
that clearly show their biases. it
might not be in a formal setting or
class, it often happens in informal
conversations. You could be
playing in the soccer pitch or
something and you tell somebody
they play like a girl - which speaks
to a bias.
- 3rd Year, Male student
“There is just this warm
compassionate thing about them
[women]. Just like my mum.“
- 3rd Year, Male student
The top three skills rated by students to be most crucial for success are: problem solving, getting
things done and confidence in order of importance. On one hand, male students perceive confidence,
ambition and quantitative skills (in that order) to be most crucial for success. On the other hand,
females perceive planning and organising, supporting others and getting things done (in that order)
as most crucial for success.
100% of students believe that female students are more empathetic than male students. This is an
ubiquitous perception rooted in the stereotype that females ought to be nurturing caregivers while
males ought to be ambitious and career-driven. Biases of this nature have been found to hinder
women’s progress in the workplace tremendously.
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The perception of the skills different genders are good at can affect one’s belief in their own
abilities. The survey revealed that more male students believe they have mastered Data & Decisions
while more females believe they have mastered Communicating for Impact. The results of these
courses would be required in order to establish how valid these beliefs are.
The WLA survey revealed that both genders believe that females are better at problem solving,
empathy, supporting others and planning and organising. Whereas both genders believe that males
are better are data analytics, confidence and ambition. These are also the three skills which males
voted as most crucial for success. Thus, males think that males are more likely to be successful.
Similarly, females believe that they are better at the skills they deem crucial for success. This
highlights a bias that both genders have.
Rating of which gender is more competent in key skills
Females are better
Males are better
Who
rated
Who
rated
Empathy
Quantitative skills
Both
genders
Problem solving
Supporting others
Confidence
Ambition
Both
genders
Planning & organising
Females
Getting things done
Inspiring
Getting things done
Inspiring
Males
Males
Networking
Networking
Females
Key Next Steps
Despite ALU being a progressive institution, students are affected by unconscious biases which
historically lead to discrimination. Awareness training is a tool which can teach students to better
understand, recognise and combat unconscious biases in daily decision-making. It can also pave the
way for an institution-wide conversation about the biases which exist and what collective structural
and informal steps can be taken to minimize them. The first step towards overcoming unconscious
biases is bringing them to a conscious level.
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In teams, females take support
roles more often than males
Team-work is an integral part of ALU’s learning model and even more critical in the larger working
world. Beyond the gender composition of teams, gender stereotypes greatly affect the dynamics or
a team and task divisions. Mckinsey Women Matter Africa report (2016) explains that, from non
management to senior management positions, women's representation drops by 20%. This is due to
the fact that men dominate ‘leading’ positions in teams, compte for line* roels and thereby obtain
organisational leadership positions easily as compared to than women (ibid).
Our research revealed that significantly more male students contribute in multiple ways (skill sets) to
peer groups than female students. The proportion of male students playing multiple roles in peer
groups is 22% while this proportion is only 3% for female students. This disparity could be due to
female students being less confident whereby they would want to keep doing tasks they are familiar
with while male students will be open to take on tasks they have not done before.
22%
Male students
contribute with
multiple skill sets
in teams
1.6X
More likely to
perform line*
roles in teams
3%
Female students
contribute with
multiple skill sets
in teams
1.3X
More likely to
perform support*
roles in teams
In addition, gender role stereotypes also seem to be prevalent in the tasks female and male
students undertake in teams. At ALU, while male students are likely to undertake tasks they deem
to be critical for success like ‘strategy’ and ‘data analysis’, female students are more likely to be
taking supporting roles such as ‘planning and organising’ meetings. Our survey shows that male
students are 1.6 times more likely to perform data analysis, research and strategy as compared to
their female peers. In contrary, female students are 1.3 times more likely to lead peer group
discussions and organise peer group meetings (eg. sending calendar invites) in peer groups.
*Note: 1. Line roles focus on core operations, e.g., strategy, finance, risk; staff roles focus on support functions, e.g.,
legal, HR, admin (McKinsey, 2016)
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‘’Peer groups can sometimes be extremely toxic. [...] People don't see
peer work as platforms to learn from each other but to show off their
skills. Some feel like if they don't do certain tasks, they will not be
held to a certain standards. Such situations make the group a strife of
who delivers more quality as opposed to helping each other grow. It's
like you come together and there are few people who feel like this is
about me so it ends up being a toxic experience’’
- Female Business Management student
Key Next steps
The described gender-biased team dynamics can be more altered through an individual effort by
students than institutional structure. Therefore, female students should consciously choose the
tasks they undertake in peer groups and go out of their comfort zone and step up to take on tasks
that 1) they have not done in their previous peer engagements 2) are critical for the project to
move forward like research and data analysis. In such a way, they will be able to develop
multi-dimensional skills as well us practice a habit of stepping up to lead team workstreams.
Furthermore, facilitators should also encourage students to take alternative roles while working
in a peer group and create check and balance systems to ensure its realisation.
21

Female students believe they don’t
have equal opportunities.
Access to opportunities with no barriers to economic, political and social participation on the
grounds of sex and gender is crucial for the achievement of gender equality (SDG 5) today.
Often times unequal opportunity is attributed to unconscious biases and stereotypes towards a
group of people based on their protected characteristics..
At ALU, 30.6% of female students
believe that they don't have equal
opportunities to other students. This
means that about 1 in every 3 female
students resonate with the sentiments.
Notably, only 16% of male students
believe they do not have equal
opportunities.
When it comes to recognition of
student contributions, there is no
statistical difference between the
experiences of male and female
students. However, there is a general
belief that students are not
acknowledged enough for their
contribution in the community. 46% of
female students believe that their
efforts are recognized, with 47.5% of
male students believing so.
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In conclusion, there is no statistical gender disparity in terms of recognition in the community,
however, majority of students do not feel acknowledged for their contributions. On another note,
female students believe they do not have equal opportunities to other students. It is important to
note that a certain group believing they do not have equal access to opportunities does not mean
that that is the case. However, it would be worth further investigation.
Key Next Steps
WLA recommends that ALU further investigates the female perception that equal opportunity does
not exist. This can be done in the next ALU UX report and through focus groups. While this is not
highly alarming as less than 50% of females concur, it is worth uncovering and dealing with the
root cause of this perception as it could lead to other challenges.
ALU could also use focus groups to further investigate on why more than 50% of the student body(
male and female) feel that their efforts are not recognized. This could point to a toxic element in
the ALU environment which was mentioned more than once during the WLA focus group
discussions.
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Methodology
The report is grounded in insights gained by analysing data from primary and secondary research
we conducted with the aim to understand gender parity issues within universities, the work place in
Africa and more importantly here at ALU.
Primary Research
Our primary research comprised of an online
survey and focus group discussions. The
primary research has excluded First year
students as at the time of research (February,
2018) as they had only been at ALU for a
period of 4 months, and we believed their
experience is relatively limited.
Secondary research
Our secondary research encompassed critical
literature review of gender parity reports from
corporates operating in Africa and top-tier
universities across the globe. Some of the key
reports reviewed include Women Matter
Africa (Mckinsey, 2016), Women in the
workplace (Mckinsey, 2017), Gender disparity
in South Africa (Bain, 2017), The status of
undergraduate women at MIT (MIT, 2016) and
The simple truth (American Association of
university women, 2017) and Mckinsey Global
Institute Report (MGI, 2017). In reviewing
these reports, we have gained insights on
[Add insights that we were looking for in the
reports]. Another aspect of our secondary
research was evaluating key articles and
journals on the history of African women and
their evolution in tertiary institutions
Online Survey
Our online survey consisting of 38 questions was
distributed to 132 selected sample of students
(52% of the population size) and received rate
responses and received an 88.6% response rate
accounting 117 students. Survey respondents were
47% Female and 53% Male, fairly representing the
student body composition of 41% Female and
59% Male students. In order to select online
survey participants, a stratified sampling was used
to to ensure proportional representation of
gender, year of study and the different majors.
Survey results were then analysed and discussed
by using group comparison, T-test analysis to
determine significant differences between female
and male groups being compared under various
variables.
Focus group discussions
We held a total of 6 focus group discussion with
close to 50 selected sample of students. The
students were grouped according to gender, study
year and major alternatively for the different group
discussions held. Stories shared in focus group
discussions were used to give an in-depth
perspective of gender parity issues that stood in
our online survey responses.
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Conclusion
Africa will not reach its full potential if women, who make up approximately 50% of the population
and workforce, are not empowered with equal opportunities and decision-making power. Currently,
women are heavily underrepresented in leadership positions with only 5% of CEOs and 22% of
cabinet members in Africa being female. This underrepresentation means that policies, legislations
and business decisions are designed from a predominantly male perspective; further hindering
gender equality.
This report focused on highlighting how ALU, an institution dedicated to developing Africa’s leaders -
both male and female, can better enable their female students to excel in the workplace and as
leaders. McKinsey’s Women Matter Africa (2016) report found that gender issues are not taken
seriously enough in Africa with only one in three CEOs placing gender diversity on their agenda. This
further emphasises the urgent need for progressive institutions such as ALU to prioritise gender
equality.
The key gender disparities highlighted in the WLA report were: representation in varying majors,
confidence, comfort networking, team work roles and equal opportunities. All of which female
students were worse-off than male students.
WLA recommends ALU priorities the following 3 disparities:
1
Representation in Majors
The underrepresentation of females in Computer Science and Engineering majors at ALU
echos and further contributes to the larger workforce challenge of a lack of women in
STEM. Furthermore, the disparity negatively affects the minority groups learning
experience and contributes to gender biases.
2
Lower Confidence in Female Students
A lack of confidence in women, or the Confidence Gap as it is referred to, has been
found to result in women being less likely to put themselves up for promotions and new
opportunities. This disparity, in addition to biases against women, results in women not
progressing as quickly or as far as men in the workplace.
25

3
Female Students predominantly in Support Roles
The high uptake of support roles in peer groups by females students at ALU echos a
key challenge of gender equality in the workplace: women being equally
represented in numbers but not in influence. Support roles contrast to line roles,
which males both at ALU and in Africa at large were found to dominate, in that they
do not directly affect the key processes and decision making of an organisation.
Thus, they have limited influence.
Our hope is that the insights from this report enable ALU to take a data-driven approach with the key
next steps serving as guides for steering progress. Furthermore, we challenge all members of the
ALU community, students and staff, to identify an area where they can make a difference and do so
in their personal capacity.
WLA believes that by making intentional strides in these
three areas of disparity, ALU will significantly improve the
female student experience and in turn better prepare
women to excel in the working world!
26

A
Women Lead Africa would like to express great appreciation to everyone who contributed to the
publication of this report. This report would not have been possible if not for the support,
guidance and useful critique that we received.
Firstly, we would like to thank Elizabeth Mwangi and Rose De Moor who worked with us in
conducting our surveys and focus groups. Thank you for your commitment, passion and
dedication towards helping bring this project to life.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to all the students who participated in this project by
either filling in our surveys and/or attending our focus groups. Having the opportunity to speak
with you and hear your candid experiences was a privilege, and we thank you for your time and
trust.
To all the faculty members who supported us by giving us feedback, sharing ideas, encouraging
us and sometimes just listening, we will forever be grateful. Thank you to Mr. Khurram Masood
for believing in this project and encouraging us to go for it. Thank you to Mr. Theodore
Sutherland for your constant feedback and encouragement . Thank you to Mr. Edward Opoku
for your encouragement as well as sharing your expertise on data analysis. Thank you for guiding
us through the process to ensure we delivered credible, objective and reliable information.
Thank you for everyone who believed in the project: Ms. Linda Rebeiz, Mr. Mehdi Oulmakki,
Nini Rose Moru and Thakane Juliet. Special thanks to our parents and friends for their belief and
motivation throughout this process.
Lastly, we are grateful to ALU for not only encouraging student research, but also allowing
positive critique while demonstrating willingness to make changes.
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WLA Gender Report Branding
Colours
Magenta - #B62B6E
Dark Gray - #595959
Light Gray - #DCDCDC
Blue - #2274A5
Fonts
Title - Montserrat(size 30)
Subtitles - Montserrat
Body - Oxygen (size 12)
Graphs
Title - Montserrat
Body - Oxygen
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