This week, NUI Galway confirmed its plan to ensure that more women are promoted to senior academic positions by introducing mandatory gender quotas. The quota of women to be promoted will follow a “cascade” approach, in which the number of women eligible for promotion is based on the proportion of women at the grade below.
For context, women hold just over half of all lecturer posts at NUIG, but their numbers fall to 30 per cent at senior lecturer level and 10 per cent at associate professor level. The university also faces legal action from five women who were looked over for promotions.
The introduction of quotas is an extreme solution, so we should ask if the situation warrants such action. In Trinity, a university that received an award last year for fostering gender equality in STEM positions, we find that just 14 per cent of full professors are women. Observing this trend at two of Ireland’s largest universities suggests more than a statistical anomaly, and accepting its legitimacy implies the belief that women are, on average, significantly less qualified for or less interested in taking high-level academic jobs. Not less interested in entering academia, just less interested in getting promoted.
Some see quotas as a form of discrimination, while others consider them a necessary evil to combat structural barriers that prevent fair competition. While the former fear the promotion of mediocre women, spare a thought for the many mediocre men we have all been taught by at some point in our lives. Do we genuinely believe that the divergent promotion trends for men and women reflect inherent gender-based levels of competence or interest? Such unequal outcomes surely reflect a significant degree of unequal opportunity.
That persistent inequality of opportunity explains the need for extreme short-term efforts to alter unequal results. Equality does not mean that every job should always be equally staffed by men and women, but rather that an academic staff of 90% women should be as statistically likely and as socially acceptable as one made of 90% men. Addressing these qualitative differences in how both genders engage with society requires a systemic solution. Until a better one is found, gender quotas should not be ruled out.
