Women’s lived experiences of career progression into leadership in South African higher education: Revisiting the glass ceiling

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Internationally, the issue of gender equality in higher education has been a serious challenge, particularly in leadership roles. This issue has spread to African countries, including South Africa. Despite the implementation and adaptation of gender equity policies, such as the Employment Equity Act of 1998, women remain underrepresented in both support and academic leadership roles within South African institutions of higher education. Studies have been conducted in this area focusing on examining structural barriers, policy gaps, and gender representation. Still, few have synthesised women’s personal narratives across multiple sources using secondary qualitative data. This current paper exists to address that gap. It further revisits the concept of the glass ceiling by unpacking women's lived experiences of career progression across the sector in recent years. It uses a qualitative approach and relies on secondary data to examine how women experience and respond to institutional barriers. The data were analysed narratively to highlight personal stories, identities, and meaning-making processes of women navigating leadership. The paper found that women in higher education are skilled and committed, but they remain constrained by outdated institutional systems that offer symbolic inclusion and limited support, thereby preventing genuine access to leadership roles. Despite this invisible glass ceiling, women remain strong and resilient, living the meaning of “wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo.” (A woman is a rock), they continue to push forward and lead even when the higher education system fails them. Therefore, it recommends that the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) strengthen the enforcement of gender equity policies through regular gender audits, leadership development programmes, and accountability mechanisms to promote authentic empowerment and sustainable transformation.

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