Power, Legitimating Discourses and Institutional Resistance to Gender Equality in Higher Education

This chapter underlines the importance of institutional resistance and legitimating discourses in understanding why the pace of change in gender equality in higher education has been so slow. Institutional resistance has been reflected in denial of the legitimacy of the gender change agenda and resisting implementing criteria and procedures which facilitate gender equality or allocating resources for it. Legitimating discourses depict existing policies and practices as appropriate, reasonable and fair. They include excellence, choice, a depoliticised intersectional discourse, a revitalised biological essentialism and a gender-neutral discourse which obscures gendered power and sexual harassment. The chapter identifies lessons learned, the structural levers of change including gender competent leaders, empowered gender equality structures and the contribution of feminist activists to institutional transformation.