This article endeavors to find out the distribution of the university academic staff in teaching and administration by gender in order to establish how promotions to higher academic ranks and appointments to administrative responsibilities were distributed across gender in Kenyan institutions of higher learning. The theoretical framework which guided this study was based on patriarchal ideology and the implied gender-based division of labour and how it has caused women's absence at top levels of educational teaching and management. The design of the study was mainly descriptive, employing oral interviews and documentary (content) analysis. The participants were drawn from two public universities: the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University. These two universities were purposively selected for the study. Much of the information that was elicited through the interviews was transcribed into written texts by merging the notes taken and the recordings made during the interviews into a single coherent? These data were then organized, examined for completeness and relevancy, and then analysed qualitatively. The study found out that Women not only enter into the teaching profession at the university in small numbers but they also obtain promotion much less frequently compared to their male colleagues. Even where they are found in large numbers, their proportions are much lower than those of male academics. In addition, female academics are usually clustered in the faculties of Arts, Social Sciences and in Education. The common factor among these disciplines is that they lead to careers which have traditionally been known to attract women. The findings also revealed that few women academics have administrative responsibilities. The study results show that socio-cultural values and beliefs coupled with historical factors and the university administration, among other factors, have led to gender inequalities in Kenyan public universities. These factors have also led to the marginalization of women in the family, the school and the workplace. Thus to improve the female occupational status and representation in all sectors of life, this study calls for drastic changes in the Kenyan society to deal with customs and prejudices which have existed for a long time to the detriment of women.