Women now make up around half of university enrolments worldwide in most regions, yet they remain a small minority in senior academic posts and leadership. This review asks what governments and universities did about that between 2010 and 2025, and what the evidence shows worked. It uses a systematised review design with narrative and integrative synthesis, and analyses 21 documents: one systematic review that itself screened 37 primary studies, 12 primary empirical studies, and 8 institutional, national, or supranational policy documents drawn from Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and targeted institutional and grey-literature sources. The evidence covers Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and North America. It is grouped by four policy instruments: statutory and quasi-statutory gender quotas, charter schemes such as Athena SWAN, incentive-linked funding, and mentorship and sponsorship programmes. Quotas and funding incentives shift the numbers most. In European systems operating quotas, women's representation on academic boards runs substantially above that in systems without them. The effect is strongest where research-funding eligibility is at stake. European systems with quotas show women's representation on academic boards running some 23 percentage points above systems without them. The Representation gains do not, however, automatically translate into structural or cultural change. Charter schemes prompt useful internal reflection and gradual improvement in the leadership pipeline, yet they struggle with entrenched pay and power gaps unless wider society shifts too. Sub-Saharan Africa presents a different problem: formal gender policies are multiplying while enforcement stays thin, so progress in access rarely reaches the leadership tier. No single instrument is sufficient. Reform works when binding rules, real financial stakes, and sustained cultural effort are layered together and matched to local implementation capacity. The review closes with a research and policy agenda for the period beyond 2025. Read more

In recent years, the number of trained and qualified women in the labour market globally has steadily increased. However, despite this increase, the proportion of women in decision-making and leadership positions in organisations is still small. This observation echoes the glass ceiling phenomenon, a metaphor for invisible but prevalent barriers that impede women career advancement in organisations. While the glass ceiling phenomenon has generated research interest, several scholars argue that theoretical models have not adequately portrayed its implications on women career advancement. As such, this study is designed to examine the effect of the glass ceiling phenomenon on women career advancement in organisations. Six hundred female employees from mid-level management and above were surveyed for this study. It was found that the glass ceiling phenomenon has significant negative effect on women career advancement in organisations. Read more

While glass as a material has been known to the people of western Nigerian for hundreds of years, it was only in the late 19th century that it became integrated into building and construction practice in Lagos. For the most part, early local architecture made little effort, if any at all, at covering window spaces with any material of permanence as the primary purpose of these orifices was more to let air in rather than light. Early European missionaries and colonial agents saw the situation differently. Their horrid fear for tropical bugs and matters of security and privacy necessitated a response and modification to the philosophy of tropical architecture. Using qualitative methods and visual analysis of archival images, this study takes a historical look at the beginnings of the integration and use of glass as fenestration and argues that so significant was the introduction in the late 19th and early 20th century in Lagos, that the innovation re-engineered the culture of architecture and living as we know it. The study identified the first building in Lagos to use glass as fenestration and discusses the role of missionaries in the development of innovation. It argues that missionary activity in the coastal city of Lagos, created a broad new industry and trade opportunities and concludes that the introduction of glass as a building material in 19th century Lagos, was not a mere development, but a significant innovation, both in construction and creativity. Read more