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02 August 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Prof Maryke Labuschagne, a successful scientist who is doing great work to enhance food security on the African continent, admires women who have made an impact, often in male-dominated environments.

Maryke Labuschagne, Professor in Plant Breeding at the University of the Free State (UFS), is known to many for her work to enhance food security. 

She holds the National Research Foundation’s South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair on Disease Resistance and Quality in Field Crops, travelling all over Africa to do research on the genetic improvement of staple food crops in communities. Through decades of research and collaboration, she has also contributed to the establishment of a strong network of researchers on the continent.

During an interview in celebration of Women’s Month, Prof Labuschagne talks about her experiences as a young scientist and how she believes young female researchers should be supported and nurtured. 

Is there a woman who inspires you and who you would like to celebrate this Women’s Month, and why?

Besides the scientists she had the opportunity to work with in countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Eswatini, Tunisia, and Ethiopia, she also met women who are working the fields to produce crops for their families, raising their children, and living in difficult conditions. “These women, who make it work against all odds, inspire me,” says Prof Labuschagne.

Other women she admires and who have made an impact – often in male-dominated environments – include role models from the past, such as former UK prime minister, Margaret Thatcher; physicist Marie Curie, who was far ahead of her time; and American geneticist Barbara McClintock, who won a Nobel Prize in 1983. 

What is your response to current challenges faced by women and available platforms for women development?
 
“When I started working in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS in 1989, it was a different world. It was a totally (white) male-dominated environment. The number of women scientists could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and they were often not given the same opportunities as their male counterparts,” she recalls.

Prof Labuschagne continues: “With women having so many opportunities today, it is now totally different.”

She believes women will always have a double burden – being responsible for a family and having to compete on an equal footing with male colleagues in the workplace. There are now, however, many platforms and support systems specifically for women, and she encourages women to make use of every available form of assistance they can get.

I would say you can have it all. Work hard, believe in yourself, follow your dreams, focus on your goals, see the opportunities – not the challenges, and leave a legacy. – Prof Maryke Labuschagne
 
What advice would you give to the 15-year-old you?

“I would say you can have it all. Work hard, believe in yourself, follow your dreams, focus on your goals, see the opportunities – not the challenges, and leave a legacy.”

She is convinced that young women can have a family and a career, even if they believe it is not possible. 
 
What would you say makes women of quality, impact, and care?
 
“I see many women at the UFS making their mark, making an impact in their chosen fields.”

According to Prof Labuschagne, what would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago, such as women serving as deans and in top management positions, is now a reality. 

“I see young female researchers boldly taking on the world, believing in themselves and their abilities, and knowing they will be successful.” She states that each of these women should be supported and nurtured, as they will have a huge influence on the course of the university’s future.

News Archive

Women’s Day Lecture by Zanele Muholi
2014-08-04

 
The Gender Studies programme at the Centre for Africa Studies presents the 2014 Women’s Day Lecture with guest speaker Zanele Muholi.

Muholi, a photographer and visual activist, will show new photographs as well as a new video produced in Durban as part of a presentation exploring Born Frees (the generation born post-apartheid South Africa known as Mandela’s great-grandchildren), and how each person expresses themselves queerly at the time of troubling hate crimes in South Africa. The young adults she depicts are those born in 1990–1994, and openly gay/lesbian/trans within South African borders.

Date: Friday 8 August 2014
Time: 12:00 – 14:00
Venue: CR Swart Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus 

Zanele was born in Umlazi, Durban, and currently lives in Johannesburg. She is known for her work on black lesbians and corrective rape in South Africa. Her work emphasises the importance of queering the normative gaze by representing black lesbians in ‘straight’ portraits in a collection of work titled Faces and Phases. Muholi’s work focuses on queer politics, gender politics and politics of race.

In the 2013 Human Rights Watch documentary titled We Live in Fear, Muholi speaks about the way in which ‘corrective rapes’ have become a binding factor for the LGBT community in South African townships and the importance of documenting lesbians who have become victims of these hate crimes. In 2009 Muholi founded the non-profit organisation Inkanyiso which focuses on visual arts and media advocacy for and by the LGBT community. Muholi is an Honorary Professor of the University of Arts/Hochschule für Künste Bremen.

To attend the lecture, please contact Nadine Lake at LakeNC@ufs.ac.za or +27(0)51 401 3813.

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