Socio-cultural Career Progression Barriers for Women in Academics: A Case of the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, Nigeria

Abstract

Gender challenges in career remains a deterrent to career progression and has largely affected the female population in the workplace environment. In Nigerian society, women have a quite significant socio-cultural role. This study, therefore, examined the understandings of women academics on the cultural family issues that serve as barriers to their careers. The study is a contribution to the existing literature on women academics’ career experiences which have been less investigated in developing countries compared to the developed ones. In doing this, the study tried to provide explanations to the impact of cultural family roles of women in achieving progression in their careers, using the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, Nigeria as a case. The study utilized a mixed research approach to investigate this relationship. The qualitative data was used to corroborate quantitative findings. The study found that the socio-cultural roles of women as wives and mothers play a crucial role in their career progression as academics. The impact of a partner's support plays a crucial role in either the academics family or her partners family’s ability to support her career thereby facilitating academic career progression. Also, a coping strategy that has been widely explored has been the sourcing for assistance with executing some of the socio-cultural roles of women.