Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University

The Department for Women and Gender Studies is part of the Social Science Faculty at Makerere University in Kampala , Uganda . Since 1991 the university has offered a women and gender studies program.

Origin and history

Makerere was founded in 1922 as a "Men's Technical College" and in 1923 renamed the "Uganda Technical College". In 1945 women were admitted for the first time, albeit with a separate curriculum consisting of English, social studies, history, art and educational studies (see Businge, 2004). After participating in the NGO forum of the United Nations World Conference in Nairobi in 1985, members of the university and women from the women's movement after the military coup in 1986 developed their first ideas for establishing a women's studies course (cf.Kasente 2002), which was finally named Women and Gender Studies Department within the Faculty of Social Sciences could be realized. Also thanks to the participation of women from the women's movement, the course originally had an explicitly political orientation, namely the transformation of women's lives in the face of the circumstances after the dictatorship of Idi Amin and the military coup. In the meantime this orientation has shifted, the main focus of the department today is gender and development in connection with gender mainstreaming (cf. Kasente, 2002).

Since 2002 the university has also had its own gender mainstreaming division.

aims

One of the goals of the department is to prepare students from different academic backgrounds to work in academic, commercial, political, NGO or government organizations and to ensure that the gender category is integrated into decision-making processes or strategies. The department wants to research gender and development from an interdisciplinary perspective and bring the results of this research into university curricula and make them accessible to a broader public, for example through public lectures and seminars, workshops or publications in the mass media. In addition, the department would like to contribute to national as well as global gender debates by networking scientists, decision-makers and activists (cf. Department of Women and Gender Studies, 2003).

criticism

Deborah Kasente, Senior Lecturer at the Department, criticizes the shift in the direction of the department, from political activism rooted in the women's movement to a focus on gender mainstreaming and the needs-based training of future government and NGO employees. According to Kasente, the department originally saw itself as an academic wing of the women's movement (cf. Kasente, 2002) that worked on development strategies and wanted to exert influence at the political level. With the establishment of the Ministry for Women and Development, which is responsible for the implementation of gender-sensitive policies as well as for coordinating the activities of various women's organizations, the direction of the Department for Women and Gender Studies changed, so Kasente, da one of the new main tasks of the course since then has been to train qualified personnel for the new ministry and various women's organizations (cf. Kasente 2002). Furthermore, Kasente criticizes the strictly hierarchical, male-dominated university organization, which promotes aggressive competitive thinking and makes the implementation of progressive ideas, as well as the work on social change, more difficult (cf. Kasente 2002).

Course offer / study programs

Bachelor of Arts - Gender and Development : As a major or minor, 3 years.
Master of Arts - Gender Studies : four semester course.
PhD program : Since 2000, the department has offered a PhD program with a research focus, which is aimed at students with a women or gender studies background.
Post Graduate Diploma in Gender Studies (planned): This course is intended to provide analytical knowledge for the implementation of gender mainstreaming measures in politics, planning, legislation and budgeting.
Outreach Programs : The Department offers a range of short programs and evening courses aimed at local and international communities, NGOs and government employees. Topics of the evening courses included: Introduction to the subject of gender and development; Gender and health care; Gender and Politics in Uganda; Law and gender; Gender and refugees etc.
Gender and information and communication technology courses : As a measure to combat the “gender digital divide”, the department offers various IT training courses and courses with a target of 70% women per course.

Members of the department

The director is Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo , other teachers are Consolata Kabonesa, Deborah Kasente, Josephine Ahikire, Deborah Mulumba, Florence K. Muhanguzi and May Sengendo.

Sponsors, partnerships

The Department is supported financially or materially by the Norwegian Development Agency ( NORAD ), the Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation ( SAREC / SIDA ) and the Carnegie Corporation (see Department of Women and Gender Studies, 2002).

The department's ICT programs are sponsored by Cisco Systems Inc., the United Nations Development Program , the United States Agency for International Development , the United Nations Volunteers, and the International Telecommunications Union . At least the company Cisco Systems influences the course content at the Internet Training Center of the Department for Women and Gender Studies: One of the courses offered is a Certified CISCO Networking Associate course, which prepares, among other things, the professional use of Cisco products (cf. Department of Women and Gender Studies, no year).

Others

In 2002 the Department hosted the Women's Worlds 2002, the 8th international, interdisciplinary women’s congress (see Department of Women and Gender Studies, 2002: 6).

Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University

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