ABSTRACT
Higher education holds the promise of reducing the impact of intergenerational disadvantages by building capability sets, strengthening agency and empowering young students. However, inequalities, such as those related to gender, persist in South African universities, irrespective of a transformative constitution, and compounded by the absence of national and institutional higher education gender equality policies. The continuing presence of gender inequalities, as well as the lack of urgency to formally address these, testifies in part to the complexity of gender and of ‘sticky’ gender norms. As a result, freedoms and agency for those experiencing disabling gender norms and structures are then impeded. To understand gender inequalities in higher education, we draw from the capabilities approach to theoretically explore what gender equality would require from this perspective. Furthermore, we aim to bridge theory and practice through empirically presenting capability sets that both male and female students at one South African university value regarding gender equality. The data not only reveal which opportunities these women and men find important for their personal development and, directly and indirectly, for gender equality, but also the significance of adding feminist theorising to capabilities.
Key words: universities, human capabilities, gender equality, feminist ideas
