Physics Comment Magazine March 2018 Issue Physics Comment March 2018_v1.3 | Page 13

Women In Physics In South Africa NEWS (WiPiSA)
Report by Dr Buyi Sondezi, WiPiSA Chairperson, University of Johannesburg
WiPiSA Lunches
As means of bringing together the
community of Women in Physics
in Institutions, it has become our
culture to honour women
especially during women’s month,
August.
WiPiSA
lunches
are
then
organised by groups to address
women
issues
in
their
environments. At the end of 2017,
WiPiSA supported 2 lunch
activities, one from UJ and
another in UNIZUL. Below is a
brief report by Dr. Puleng
Mbuyisa from UNIZUL.
Lunch started by introduction of all
attendees, followed by discussions.
A number of issues were raised
including dealing with certain type
of lecturers and time management.
The discussions were facilitated in a
manner that allowed for both
academics and students to engage
with each other. The academics
were not portrayed as having all the
answers but the advice from other
students were encouraged, as senior
students successfully dealt with
some of the issues raised and
understood the issues from
students’ perspective.”
Pictures taken from WiPiSA lunch held in UNIZUL, September, 2017.
At the UJ WiPiSA lunch, discussions sought to answer the question, “STEM Women, do we have a
challenge?” From this topic the discussion was driven in such a manner that challeng