Strategies to ‘Slay the Dragon’—One Head at a Time

Abstract

This chapter suggests that bringing about gender change in the academy is like attempting to slay the Seven-Headed Dragon (van den Brink and Benschop in Gend. Work and Organ. 19: 71–92, 2012)—it takes a multi-pronged approach. It also acknowledges that sexism is dynamic and malleable and keeps taking new shapes and forms. I therefore suggest that women in the academy, and those that support inclusive and fair organisational structures and cultures, need to adopt strategies of resistance that contextually suit the situated form/s of oppression made manifest in one’s own context. I also offer an overview of the range of strategies created and employed by the women contributors to this book to resist sexism in the contemporary academy. The chapter offers some strategies that can be operationalised to slay the dragon, one head at a time