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Mapping Meritocracy: Intersecting Gender, Poverty and Higher Educational Opportunity Structures

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Abstract

Widening participation in higher education can be a force for democratization. It can also map on to elite practices and contribute to further differentiation of social groups. Those with social capital are often able to decode and access new educational opportunities. Those without it can remain untouched by initiatives to facilitate their entry into the privileges that higher education can offer. This article is based on our ESRC/DFID-funded research project on Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard (www.sussex.ac.uk/education/wideningparticipation). Meritocratic discourse infers that individual achievement is the most important principle determining access and success in higher education. The project is statistically and discursively deconstructing merit. We are mapping meritocracy in order to identify if the most marginalized communities are being included in the widening participation agenda. In this article, we demonstrate how current opportunity structures reflect traditional beliefs about meritocracy and reproduce privilege and exclusion. We argue that when gender is intersected with socio-economic status, participation rates of poorer women are seen to be extremely low in both African countries.

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Notes

  1. Grade A: Highest post at which research conducted, Professor. Grade B: Researchers not as senior as top position but more senior than newly qualified Ph.D. holder, for example Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer, Senior Researcher (European Commission, 2006, 50).

  2. Deprived districts were defined as those where the percentage of households living below the basic poverty line is greater than the national average. This was found to be the case in 53 districts (URT, 2005).

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to the ESRC/DFID for funding this project, and to members of the project teams, for example Amandina Lihamba, Rosemarie Mwaipopo, Linda Forde, Godwin Egbenya and Fiona Leach.

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  1. Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER), Sussex School of Education, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QQ, UK

    Louise Morley & Rosemary Lugg

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  1. Louise Morley
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  2. Rosemary Lugg
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Correspondence to Louise Morley.

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Morley, L., Lugg, R. Mapping Meritocracy: Intersecting Gender, Poverty and Higher Educational Opportunity Structures. High Educ Policy 22, 37–60 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2008.26

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