Olive Mugenda: Navigating Women’s Challenges in the Workplace

Join the Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health (FBMH) for their flagship International Women’s Day event with Professor Olive Mugenda. Throughout her career, Olive has made significant contributions in both an academic and research capacity towards women’s issues and healthcare equality.

As The University of Manchester celebrates its Silver Athena Swan Status, FBMH is proud that 64% of the faculty are women. Additionally, in the past 4 years, it has seen a 7% increase in the number of women professors in their workforce.

Join Professor Mugenda for an extra special Bicentennial International Women’s Day Celebration where she will talk about her experiences of navigating challenges women face in the workplace; following the lecture, there will also be the opportunity for questions.

Professor Mugenda holds both an MSc and PhD from Iowa State University) in family studies, in addition to an MBA degree from ESAMI, Arusha. Upon return from overseas study, Olive returned to Kenya and took up a teaching position at Kenyatta University, with one teaching speciality being women’s education. Professor Mugenda was then appointed Vice Chancellor of Kenyatta University against an all-male applicant pool in 2006.

Professor Mugenda is currently the Chairperson of the Kenyatta University Teaching Referral & Research Hospital which, under her leadership, has partnered with FBMH to help improve the prevention and management of cancer in Kenya by creating a world-leading research centre. The initiative seeks to improve cancer detection and management to reduce health tourism to India and the Middle East from Kenya and the East African Region.

Professor Mugenda has dedicated her education and professional career towards understanding women’s issues and fighting for healthcare equality and the lecture will draw focus to Olive’s insights and reflections on navigating workplace challenges as a woman and her role to date as a leader.

During her visit to the University of Manchester; Professor Mugenda is being hosted by Dr Natalie Gardiner – Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Professor Mahesh Nirmalan – Vice Dean for Social Responsibility and Professor Keith Brennan – Vice Dean for Internationalisation. We are honoured that she has agreed to lead our International Women’s Day celebrations.