How female scholars can rise above challenges in male-dominated society

An academic and legal practitioner, Foluke Dada-Lawanson, a professor, has said that building mental resilience and the ability to maintain a work-life balance are crucial skills needed for women to rise confidently above their challenges as they navigate their careers in a male-dominated society.

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Speaking to female scholars from different African countries at a summit recently, Ms Dada-Lawanson of Caleb University, Imota, Ogun State, used her personal experience and life story to explain how scholars can rise above their challenges.

Keynote Speaker at the summit, Dorcas Odunaike, a professor at the Department of Private and Commercial Law, School of Law and Security Studies, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, encouraged the scholars with the words of Maya Angelou, the American memoirist and poet, that they should go beyond mere survival but to “thrive to maintain your status as a scholar with passion, confidence and style”.

She advised the scholars to utilise the training acquired and maintain quality and excellence in their professional work.

In his address, Nduka Otiono, a professor and principal investigator of the scholarship programme, also spoke about the challenges women face in trying to juggle their studies and role as mothers, particularly their stoic determination to make a mark in society.

“’ Those of us who have daughters, wives and female friends have also come to understand the power of women and women have more mental resilience than men and that when it matters most, even if we are men, we are men because we have had mothers, wives and friends. Without them, we won’t be who we are. And so. I want to celebrate you again and just to hear your voices,” he said.

The summit

The summit, held in Lagos, was organised by Carleton University, a Canadian institution, for scholars under its Queen Elizabeth Scholarship-Advanced Scholars Programme.

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The scholarship programme titled: ‘Wurin Ta na Yin Rubu’, the Hausa phrase for “Her Own Room to Write”, and supported by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship – Advanced Scholars West Africa, is designed “to provide an opportunity to gain experience through travel to Carleton University and/or across West Africa to one of our research placement partners.”

“The scholarship provides for research supervision, focused seminars, experiential learning through aligning your research proposal with research placement opportunities, leadership, and network building,” the university said.

Participants at the summit were female African scholars from different countries who were also beneficiaries of the scholarship. They include; Claude Pefolé, a magistrate and PhD candidate in private law at the University of Douala, Cameroon; Sophia Abiri-Franklin, a legal and governance practitioner, as well as the Managing Partner of Georgetown Solicitors; Rashidat Akande of the Department of Economics and Development Studies Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria; Ngueda Raphaelle of the Regional Centre for Poultry Science (CERSA), University of Lome, Togo.

Others are; Jane Ezirigwe, a professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS); Oluyemisi Majebi of the Department of Early Childhood and Educational Foundations at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State; Oluwabunmi Bakare-Fatungase, a Senior Lecturer, Library and Information Science, Department of Information Management, Faculty of Information and Information Sciences at Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.