Maliva, Nelly Samson2017-05-112017-05-112017-04Kabeer (2005)http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11810/4527This study uses the post-structuralism standpoints to analyze the position of women academicians in higher learning institutions. It goes beyond seeing that women are misrepresented in different positions in workplaces by exploring extent to which they have been practicing their freedom to choose what they desire to do in their lives. As such it regards women as the active actors who are able to negotiate with the situations and environment that are said to constraint their actions and choices. The study has used sensemaking theory as a lens to see the different ways that women use to see the environment and find their own ways of encountering them. By doing so they influence and be influenced by the environment through the different strategies that they use to encounter the environment. It uses the autoethnomethodology methods that reflects the author’s experience as the participant observer. The findings of the study shows to the great extent, participate in influencing their mis-representations in different positions in workplaces. As such they have shown their ability to exercise the freedom of choice. For them this freedom of give them the opportunity to choose what they value in their lives. As such, gender equality cannot be explained by statistics but their level of using their agency. The finding of this article is important for the policy makers, as it shows that women are not constrained by the structures (such as societal and institutional cultures) but by their own inclinations. As such they are ‘the authors of their own constraints and opportunities’. It is important, therefore to expose them to educational programs that will give them confidence to act.enSensemaking, agency, structures, environment, autoethnomethodology, reflexive approachConference Paper