Why Not Enough Women Head Moroccan Universities and Higher-Education Institutions
Some of the female heads of Moroccan universities and higher education institutions have been telling Al-Fanar Media why they think they are not more numerous.
In 2002 Rahma Bourqia was appointed head of Hassan II University and became Morocco’s first female university president. Since then, there has been a recurrent debate about why more women are not leading the country’s universities and higher-education institutions.
Female leaders of Moroccan academic institutions talked to Al-Fanar Media about their careers and the advice they would give younger female scholars.
In Morocco, women do head a number of university institutions. These include the National School of Computer Science and Systems Analysis (ENSIAS), in Rabat; the Faculty of Dentistry, in Rabat; the Faculty of Medicine, in Laayoune; the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of Settat; the Faculty of Law, Economy and Social Sciences of Tetouan; the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Mohammedia; the Higher School of Teachers in Marrakech; and the High Institute of Theatrical Art and Cultural Animation (ISADAC), in Rabat.
Ilham Barrada is the first female director of ENSIAS, which is attached to Mohammed V University of Rabat and is one of the top engineering schools in Morocco. She said that the rising generation of women should take the initiative and apply for more leading academic positions. She told Al-Fanar Media that women, by their nature, “seek to master their tasks with full transparency, a sense of responsibility, and succeed in all aspects of work, in parallel with their family responsibility.”
Ilham Berrada, director of the National School of Computer Science and Systems Analysis (ENSIAS), thinks that the difficulty women face in leading university institutions is mainly due to the lack of female pioneers in higher education to share their experiences. This makes many women reluctant to seek high-ranking positions, she says.
Barrada thinks that the difficulty women face in leading university institutions is mainly due to the lack of female pioneers in higher education to share their experiences. This makes many women reluctant to seek high-ranking academic positions, she said.
Barrada noted that female engineering students form 43 percent of her institution’s undergraduate students, more than 46 percent of graduate students. Moreover, women occupy about 95 percent of its administrative positions.
Difficulties and Obstacles
Barrada obtained her Ph.D. in computer science and operational research from the University of Montreal in Canada thirty years ago. She has worked as a research professor at ENSIAS for more than 28 years. She is also a member of the National Commission for Education, Science and Culture, a national expert in higher education reform, and a member of the board of directors of the National Agency for Evaluation and Quality Assurance of Higher Education and Scientific Research (ANEAQ).
Similarly, Nawal Bouyahyaoui, dean of the Faculty of Dentistry in Rabat, says that women form over 69 percent of her faculty’s administration and teaching staff. “The college’s administration has demonstrated Moroccan women’s ability to efficiently lead any university institution, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said. “That posed a great challenge for me and my administrative team. The college managed to provide distance learning during the crisis nevertheless.”
Yamina El Kirat El Allame, director of the Moroccan Institute for Advanced Studies at Mohammed V University of Rabat, said she thought there was “patriarchal resistance” to women’s aspiration to lead higher education institutions.
El Kirat El Allame obtained a Ph.D. in minority identities, languages, and cultures, from Mohammed V University in Rabat in 2004, and was a member of the Unesco committee of experts on endangered languages.
“One of the secrets of my success was the encouragement I got from my family, but a woman’s attempt to hold official positions in Moroccan universities is not easy,” she said. “Rather, it is fraught with a lot of patriarchal resistance, difficulties and obstacles.”
El Kirat El Allame wants to see more opportunities for women in top jobs at Morocco’s universities and higher-education institutions.
“A woman’s attempt to hold official positions in Moroccan universities is not easy. Rather, it is fraught with a lot of patriarchal resistance, difficulties and obstacles.”
Yamina El Kirat El Allame, director of the Moroccan Institute for Advanced Studies at Mohammed V University
Her career began in the 1980s at Hassan II University’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Mohammedia. El Kirat El Allame rose to be vice dean and director of the faculty’s doctoral centre but not without encountering “several difficulties while seeking to hold senior administrative university positions.”
Remnants of Patriarchal Thinking
Fatima Chaabi specialises in Spanish studies at Ibn Zahr University and is a member of the National Council for Human Rights. She said: “Despite the progress made by Moroccan women and the non-discrimination stipulation in the 2011 Constitution, women in higher education still suffer from the remnants of patriarchal thinking that characterise Moroccan society because of the lack of education on equality and equal opportunities in the three systems concerned: the family, education and training, and the media.”
“The media reinforce patriarchal thought and there is a lack of awareness programmes about gender equality for children and young,” she said. “There is also poor representation of women in positions of responsibility at university, whether in the management of institutions, the presidency of universities, or the Ministry of Higher Education.”
Figures from Morocco’s Ministry of Higher Education show that women currently occupy 3,125 administrative and technical positions in universities, out of 6,717, or about 45 percent. But only 5 percent of those women hold deanships and university presidencies.
However, Chaabi remains optimistic. “Because of the increasing number of female university students in Morocco, the presence of women in decision-making positions in the university will be better in the future,” she said.
Related Reading
- Morocco’s Mismatch Between Graduates and Jobs
- Gender Gap Report Finds MENA Region Lags in Leadership Roles for Women
- Empowering Arab Women Goes Beyond Holding Public Positions, Says Hania Sholkamy
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