New Frontiers in Contemporary Missiology: Southern African Perspectives

Book excerpt: This book epitomizes the understanding that to excel, you have to believe in yourself and your ability to achieve, and that part of this process is enabled by mentorship. Looking at the history of women in science or academia, it is apparent that women have struggled long and hard to be recognised as legitimate scientists or academics and that women of colour are confronted with double jeopardy of both race and gender, not only in South Africa but at a global level. Gender equity in science or academia and racial diversity are moral and necessary imperatives. In academia, women are strongly represented in the early phases of their academic careers, yet there is an attrition in the number of women who are associate professors and full professors. This “leaky pipeline” not only wastes women's education and potential, preventing much-needed diversity in academia but, more profoundly, restricts women's goals and rights.