Academic promotion and leadership: ‘moving the needle’ for the enhancement of gender equality in Tunisian higher education institutional members of the RMEI network following the TARGET framework

Although job opportunities, recruitment criteria, health insurance and social welfare are equally available regardless of sex, academic promotion at higher education institutions (HEIs) has so far been a challenging issue for women more than men. Even though there are not legislative policies or political strategies proscribing gender discrimination, the under-representation of women in high profile positions is thought-provoking as it was found by this study on collecting segregating data at the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences of Sousse (FAHSS) and to a lesser degree at the National Engineering School of Sousse (ENISO). Given insufficient research in the area under investigation, and despite the shortage of data needed for examination, this study makes use of and analyses the available data collected from Sousse University. Built upon the findings, this paper sets forth to examine impediments as challenges to progress which are encountered by women. Despite the belief that gender parity has been acquired, it is still a challenge to progress to endorse the culture of gender equality at higher education institutions. The study entails the activities of the gender equality committee created at Sousse University in 2018 with the support of the Mediterranean Network of Engineering Schools (RMEI) and under the framework of the EU TARGET project entitled ‘Taking a reflexive approach to gender equality at Institutional transformation’.