The founder of the African Centre for Technical Training (ACTT), Penelope Brooke Thompson, has recounted how students related with her like their mate during her time as a lecturer at Ashesi University.
The beautiful woman who looks younger than her age, said some male students even spoke to her like she was their girlfriend.
During a podcast appearance, Penelope who shared her life experiences, was asked how she kept her male students at bay while she lectured a Ashesi.
She recounted how shocked she was one time when she found out what some students had written about her during a performance appraisal which the school took very seriously.
“I don’t know whether they were joking or not but one of the things they wrote was ‘she’s too hot, we can’t concentrate in class’ and I didn’t know because it’s anonymous…”
She found out about this when her head of department asked to see her one day. When she got to the office, her boss was doing a lot of small talk and that was what hinted her that what she was going to hear wasn’t pleasant.
“We would rather the students listen to you than look at you,” finally the department head said and a shocked Penelope could only exclaim “What!”
Her surprise was borne out of the fact that there were other workers in the school who were thicker than her and wore short skirts while she was always in trousers and shirts.
When asked if she had ever faced any form of chauvinism, Penelope responded in the negative but quickly added that she had rather had to deal with a lot of perverts in her line of work.
“When I was fundraising at some point I was wearing a fake engagement ring… because it was like clockwork. I know that I needed money but I didn’t need money that badly. They will hit on you, sometimes we’ve gotten to the signing point and they’ll tell a joke like ‘you know you have to have child for me before I can give you this money right”
The engagement ring however didn’t stop the advances because some men still go after married women.
@imld.pod We are still trying to find that anonymous Ashesi guy! for the full episode, see link in bio #Ghana #Accra #Podcast #IMLDPod #AfricanPodcast #podcastclips ♬ original sound - imld.pod
ADG/ KE
