WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Intersectionality in Organisations: Exploring the Relationships between Gender, Ethnicity, Religion and Women’s Work in a Postcolonial African Space. Ibokessien, N. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Mrs Nene Ibokessien, 2020. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Intersectionality in Organisations: Exploring the Relationships between Gender, Ethnicity, Religion and Women’s Work in a Postcolonial African Space. Nene N. Ibokessien A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2020 Abstract This study focuses on academic women’s perception of organisational structures involving recruitment, selection and promotion in the Nigerian higher education system, exploring how gender, ethnicity and religious identities, important factors in the Nigeria socio-economic context, can create inequalities within academia. Four Nigerian universities are used as case studies, drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews and an online self-administered survey to collect data. The study employs the concept of intersectionality, which investigates how identities intersect to produce multiple forms of inequalities. However, the study contends that conceptualising intersectionality with Postcolonial and African feminisms creates a theoretical framework capable of highlighting the interactions between organisational structures, socio- cultural attitudes to gender and ethno-religious affiliations framed by colonial legacies and postcolonial policies, thereby developing an expanded Intersectionality which is able to adequately analyse experiences of Nigerian women working in academia. Postcolonial feminism is concerned with addressing the representation of women in formerly colonised areas, while African feminism seeks answers to gender equality issues within the contextual frame of historical and cultural realities in Africa. Both of these feminisms have criticised the perceived hegemony of Western feminist thought for what they consider its universalisation of women’s oppression. The findings reveal that while the participants view themselves as successful academics with agency, there are socio-cultural attitudes to gender which have led to a normalisation of gendered practices in academia and an absence of organisational policies to tackle these issues. Furthermore, minority ethnic and religious women are more likely to experience discrimination in their organisations. Finally, while there is evidence of inequalities in all four case studies, women’s experience of discrimination vary across different regions based on ethnic and religious affiliations, a testament to the non- homogeneity of women in their workplace experiences in Nigeria. 2 Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................... 11 1.0 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................ 24 1.1.2 Objectives: ......................................................................................................................................... 24 1.2 Organisation of the thesis .................................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER 2: WOMEN’S POSITION IN THE NIGERIAN FORMAL LABOUR MARKET ........................................................................................................................ 26 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 26 2. 2 Nigeria and its labour market .......................................................................................... 26 2.3 Labour Force Participation by gender in Nigeria ............................................................. 30 2.4 Women in the Formal Labour Sector ................................................................................ 35 2.4.1 Poor enforcement of anti-Discrimination Legislation .................................................................. 38 2.5 Women’s participation in Formal Education .................................................................... 39 2.5.1 The Higher Education Sector ......................................................................................................... 40 2.5.2 Employment of Women in Higher Education ............................................................................... 45 2.5.3 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 49 CHAPTER 3: GENDER, ETHNICITY AND RELIGION WITHIN FORMAL EMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA ....................................................................................... 51 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 51 3.2 Gender Inequality and discrimination within the workplace ............................................ 51 3.2.1 Colonial Legacy and Gendering of the Educational System and Labour market in Postcolonial Nigeria ....................................................................................................................................................... 52 3.3 Gender Attitudes in the Nigerian Labour Market ............................................................ 55 3.4 Gender and employment Within the Nigerian Higher Education system ......................... 57 3.4.1 Recruitment and Selection Processes and Equality ...................................................................... 59 3.4.2 Recruitment and Selection for Women in Higher education ....................................................... 62 3.5 Gender, promotion and career progression in the workplace ........................................... 63 3.5.1 Organisational structures and Academic Women’s Career Progression ................................... 65 3.6 Ethnicity ............................................................................................................................ 67 3.6.1 Colonisation and Postcolonial Ethnic Relations ........................................................................... 68 3.6.2 Ethnicity and the Post-colonial Nigerian Socio-Economic system .............................................. 69 3.6.3 Ethnic Tensions/Conflict in Postcolonial Nigeria ......................................................................... 70 3.6.4 Federal Character Principle and Indigenisation .......................................................................... 71 3.6.5 Ethnicity, Recruitment and Promotion practices within the Labour market ............................ 73 3.7 Religious Identity and Women’s Employment .................................................................. 75 3.7.1 Religion and Perceptions of Female Leadership in the Formal Labour Market ....................... 78 CHAPTER 4: FEMINIST CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES ........................................ 81 4.1 Feminist debates ................................................................................................................ 83 4.1.1 Criticisms of Western Feminism .................................................................................................... 83 3 4.2 Intersectionality: ................................................................................................................ 85 4.2.1 Approaches to Conceptualising Intersectionality ......................................................................... 87 4.2.2 Criticisms of Intersectionality ........................................................................................................ 89 4.3 Postcolonialism .................................................................................................................. 93 4.3.1 Postcolonial feminism ...................................................................................................................... 95 4.3.2 Constructing Postcolonial and African Feminisms ...................................................................... 98 4.3.3 African Feminism(s) ...................................................................................................................... 102 4.3.4 Theorising Feminism in Post-colonial African Locations .......................................................... 104 4.3.5 Conceptualizing Postcolonial Feminist theory, African Feminisms and Intersectionality in Higher Education ................................................................................................................................... 108 4.3.6 Gender, Ethnicity and Religion within Higher Education in Nigeria drawing on Inequality Regimes Approach of Intersectionality ................................................................................................ 111 CHAPTER 5 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 117 5.0