Plus Ça Change

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Graphs in the Higher Education Authority’s National Review of Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Institution, published today

An expert group commissioned by the Higher Education Authority – and chaired by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn – reviewed gender equality, or lack thereof, within Ireland’s third-level institutions.

Publishing its report today, the group states it recommends that:

– Each higher education institution introduce mandatory quotas for academic promotion, based on the flexible cascade model where the proportion of women and men to be promoted/recruited is based on the proportion of each gender at the grade immediately below.

– Gender equality is identified as a national priority and key system objective in the Higher Education System Performance Framework.

– Agreed targets and indicators of success are included in higher education institutions’ compacts with the HEA. Funding will, therefore, be linked to institutions’ performance, and will be withheld if they fail to meet agreed targets.

– In so far as possible, the final pool of candidates at the final selection step in the appointment process for new presidents of higher education institutions will be comprised equally of women and men.

– All candidates for presidential appointments at higher education institutions will have demonstrable experience of leadership in advancing gender equality, and this will be included in the recruitment criteria.

– Each institution will appoint a vice-president for equality, who will be a full academic member of the executive management team and who will report directly to the president.

– Key decision-making bodies (concerned with resource allocation, appointments and promotions) in higher education institutions will consist of at least 40% women and at least 40% men.

– The recruitment and promotion procedures currently used by higher education institutions will be reviewed to ensure they are gender-sensitive.

– Higher education institutions will apply for and achieve an Athena SWAN institutional award within three years. Within seven years, research-funding agencies will require institutions to have attained an Athena SWAN silver institutional award to be eligible for funding. (Athena SWAN is a system of awards – granted at bronze, silver and gold levels – to recognise institutions and departments for progress in addressing gender inequality).

– The HEA will establish a comprehensive database of staff in higher education institutions to provide an evidence base for monitoring progress in addressing gender inequality.

– A national committee to support gender equality in higher education will be established by the HEA, in partnership with the Irish University Association and Institutes of Technology Ireland.

The report can be read in full here

Previously: Trinity College: A Woman’s Place

Sexism And Trinity

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24 thoughts on “Plus Ça Change

    1. Rob_G

      Next month: the govt will launch an expert group on why men don’t become nurses, and why there are not more female plumbers.

        1. Rob_G

          Do you know, I would be very much in favour of more women becoming plumbers, and more men becoming nurses (I know of one male nurse who felt that his colleagues didn’t really trust him being around kids due to his gender), and I really think that we should be taking to steps to address that. But I don’t think that quotas based on gender would improve the quality of either nursing or plumbing.

          I guess my point is that calls for gender parity usually target certain professions, and usually address one side.

        2. Turgenev

          Thought I’d found a female electrician with good word-of-mouth recently; turned out she’d come up from Cork to do the job :(

      1. sirtuffyknight

        Your point is moot given that there are equal numbers of both genders at postgraduate level

      1. The Real Jane

        Indeed. It stands to reason that it’s all brilliant until you let The Women in, which is the harbinger of decline in everything. Naturally, ensuring that women are promoted must mean a decline in quality.

        No quotas = guaranteed quality
        Quotas = more women

        QED

        1. mildred st. meadowlark

          Well said Jane. The tone of some of the comments here is alarming. Really.

      1. pedeyw

        The answer Eoin will give will be something along the lines of maybe less women want to be professors, to which I would argue why is it that less women want to be professors?

      2. Cian

        No, 94% was almost 20 years ago. If you look at the bottom graph: in 1998 it was 94% male professors, in 2004 it was 92%, last year it was down to 81%. So in 20 years going from 1 in 20 to 1 in 5 today. Still room to improve but there is definitely a positive trend.

        I’m more surprised in the undergraduate breakdown: in 1998 it was 59% female… but that has dropped to 53%. I wonder what caused this change.

        1. Rob_G

          I think another factor that is particular to the field of academia is that professors are tenured, and so tend to stay in their jobs for a long time. This would be a factor in the slow rate of change in academia.

  1. Starina

    Just as “white” isn’t “normal” and everything else “other”, even though most white people think it’s this way, male isn’t “normal”, with female being “niche”.

    There are a LOT of studies on this.

    But viewing a ratio of 94% male professors as ok is very symptomatic of this attitude. Similar to studies they’ve done that show that when you take a group of, say, seven men and three women (correct me if it’s 6-and-4 or 8-and-2, can’t find the link now), the men see it as being a 50/50 split.

  2. Bunny Car

    These figures are actually quite encouraging, and I would image that the trend in the last 2-3 years has further shifted them towards a more balanced level. Considering the lack of new lecture/professorship positions that have emerged in the last number of years, what this indicates is that there has been a disproportionately higher uptake of females into these roles over previous years, which is clearly what the authors of the report are looking for.
    Whether the pace of change is not fast enough or the authors of the report are calling for greater positive description to rapidly address the disparity in the sexes is not clear, but the figures that would be more interesting to see would be the relative percentages for new hires/appointments, which would not be affected by the terrible starting position from 20 years ago and the difficulty in removing under-performing academics from faculty positions.

  3. CousinJack

    By number of individuals affected the discrimination aginst male under and post grads is much more significant, surely lower threholds should be set for males to get equal representation in these areas rather than the clear discrimination in favour of females at academic entry levels.

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