Page 177 - CONFERENCE BOOK OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENDER, CULTURE AND SOCIETY (ICGCS) 2021

CONFERENCE PROGRAM AND ICGCS 2021

ABSTRACT BOOK

Gender and Education

How Serious is Higher Education in Preparing Women For

a Leadership Role: Voice of Female Alumni

Delita Sartika, Herbitera, Yayuk Sriayudha

Universitas Jambi

As a part of a larger study purposed to develop a gender-responsive curriculum to support

gender-sensitive education in the University of Jambi, this paper describes experiences of

female alumni of the Faculty of Education who work as teachers at school. Their narratives

were collected through a focus group discussion designed to explore their view of how much

university education has prepared them to take leadership role at school. The analysis of these
narratives are going to be used as one of the foundations of the gender-responsive curriculum

model.

Female alumni’s narratives reveal that their career choice at school actually reflects their

consideration in choosing a career that provides flexibility to balance family and professional

life. Women also see that teaching profession is more suitable with feminine traits. However,
some participants expresses that taking a leadership role in the school, such as being a

principal, is more challenging for women as they believe that being a leader requires traits that

are contradictory to femininity, such as being assertive and bold. Women’s narratives further

reveal that they have not received proper training/education on gender equality during their

study in university. This implies that gender-sensitive curriculum is a necessary part of higher
education to prepare female graduate transitioning into workplace.

Keywords: Leadership role, Higher education, Female Alumni

Short Biography:

Delita Sartika is lecturer at the Faculty of Education and also a secretary at Center for

Gender Studies at Universitas Jambi. She holds a Ph.D in Literary Translation. She teaches

translation, literature and writing. Her research interest includes translation, literature as
well as women and gender studies.

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