Still, women were predominantly defined as mothers and wives, channeled into teaching and nursing. Domestic science as a curriculum for women was emphasised, while fewer women trained as professionals or were able to enter tertiary institutions. Almost two decades after independence there is a realisation that the post-independence policies have not effected real change for women. A closer look at the education system shows that there is a lot of discrimination which women have to contend with. The contention of this project is that sexual harassment in its broadest sense creates 'chilly climates' in which women cannot thrive and that it is a form of institutionalized discrimination which is condoned and serves to keep women subservient to men in the educational system and beyond it.
Sexual harassment has to be broadly understood within a context of gender violence.
The latter meaning physical, emotional, psychological and economic violence which women suffer at the hands of men and institutions which represent their interests. Both gender violence and sexual harassment are ways of telling women to conform and to confine them to the home where they cannot compete with men. In institutions of higher learning it takes the form of demands for sexual favours by men in positions of authority. Sexual favours are demanded under the pretense that the female student will be guaranteed a place in the institutions if she complies. Where women do comply they remain within the hold of the men, i.e. , men may use their positions of authority to create little fiefdoms of females under their control.