ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the making and the implementation of a gender equity policy at a historically black South African University, and the impact of this policy on academic women. Importantly, any policy is constructed within a particular social, political and historical context and prevailing lines of power; the forces that make for inequalities in South Africa lie within, but also without the educational terrain. White men have always controlled senior positions, and academic women are located in the lower ranks where teaching loads are heaviest and hardest, and resources most scarce. It has also been necessary to draft a supporting policy elaborating the criteria for promotion and appointment. Publishing a gender equity policy does not mark the end of the equal opportunities process but the beginning of a cycle of raising awareness and eventually policy review and revision. The gains for academic women have proved to be rather more ambiguous than the policy document might lead one to expect.
