Gender equality in higher education has recently come under scrutiny, with the introduction of the new gender equality taskforce. While this initiative will look into the employment and promotion practices of higher education institutions regarding women in high-ranking positions, it is unclear whether or not it will look into gender equality in the broader sense and how this will impact transgender faculty and staff.
Ireland is often seen as a model when it comes to gender recognition legislation. Speaking to The University Times, Siobhán Mullally, a professor of human rights law and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights in NUI Galway (NUIG), said: “Other countries look at the Gender Recognition Law in 2015 to really pursue and progress. It’s something that Ireland has promoted as a good practice.”
Gordon Grehan, the Operations Manager for the Transgender Equality Network Ireland, agreed with this assessment, specifically referencing Ireland’s progress in this area: “I think in terms of our gender recognition legislation, we are one of only six countries in the world where that is based on self determination and we’re kind of a world leader in that field”, he told The University Times.
This gender recognition legislation has manifested itself in the Gender Recognition Act 2015, which allows any individual over the age of 18 to self-declare their own gender identity. Individuals who are 16 and 17 can also apply, but these applications often get wrapped up in legal red tape. Mark Bell, the Regius Professor of Laws in Trinity, spoke to The University Times about the legal background surrounding transgender faculty and staff in universities.
“In Irish law there is a prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex and that has been interpreted as also discrimination related to gender reassignment, following the decision of the European Court of Justice. All employers, including universities are required to not discriminate against an employee for a reason related to gender reassignment”, Bell said.
While this legal context suggests that transgender employees in higher education institutions would be represented properly, a lack of education and information surrounding awareness and language can often create issues when it comes to implementing policies.
Yet transgender students seem to have a better support system than faculty members. Mullally attributes this to the fact that “as employers, or as universities, [they] haven’t yet fully grasped what is required”. Prof Anne Scott, the Vice-President for Equality and Diversity in NUI Galway, points to examples of this in NUIG. She says the LGBT society, Gay in Galway Society, welcomes transgender staff and offers a support system, as they would for transgender students, as there is no formal staff equivalent.
Scott is the first Vice-President for Equality and Diversity in Ireland. The position was created after a recommendation from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to universities. Trinity has not yet introduced such a position, however, and is unlikely to do so in the future. Yet even without heeding this recommendation, Trinity isn’t necessarily falling behind. In fact, Trinity has certain policies that are considered quite progressive. With regards to staff, employees can speak with HR to change their name and gender in Trinity’s records, said Aoife Crawford, Trinity’s Equality Officer. However, the core database that deals with tax records and pensions retains the name and gender on an employee’s birth certificate.
Athena SWAN has also been seen as a standard-bearer for holding universities accountable when it comes to gender equality. The UK-based programme has updated its charter parameters from only including women in the STEM field to incorporating women in the fields of arts and humanities, men in certain faculties and transgender employees. This recent update has only been introduced into Irish universities in the past year, meaning many universities “are still exploring issues”, according to Sarah Fink, who is responsible for the expansion of Athena Swan into Ireland.
But even though universities have only begun to think about transgender issues, as Fink indicated, there has already been an ultimatum set for universities. Universities can face the restriction of funding from Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board if they fail to be acknowledged by the charter by 2019. However, Fink clarified this deadline, explaining that the acknowledgment is based on the original charter regarding women in STEM fields, not the new charter that includes transgender employees. Many universities have, however, voluntarily chosen to be measured based on those guidelines.
Universities won’t need to be acknowledged for that until 2020. Fink explained that the bronze award only requires universities to recognise what its “issues are and committing to do something about them”. The next step requires universities to put actions into motion until 2023. “I do think bronze by 2019 is certainly attainable”, she said.
The Athena SWAN programme is widely recognised as a very good way to quantify transgender employees’ equality. Yet Grehan wanted to remind people that, while the programme is “a useful mechanism to get universities to review their policies”, universities should “listen to the push from students themselves and from staff”.
Restrictions have been apparent in Trinity. In the Annual Equality Monitoring Report for 2016/2017, the word “transgender” is not mentioned once in the 114-page document. The reason for this, Crawford explained, is that just this year the HEA has “allowed the Academic Registry and their equivalents in other universities to report to them on a third gender category”. Before this, students and staff were categorised into “male” and “female” categories. The third category of “other” allows the Equality Office to break that down further to identify transgender students and staff.
However, Crawford also made a point to ensure a person’s privacy when it comes to this very delicate topic. “If you are reporting on gender of staff by school, and you have a third gender category and there’s only one person in it, that’s revealing identifying information”, she said.
Though universities seem eager to look at transgender employment equality, there has been some pushback. Fink explains that the universities that have shown a “bit of pushback” aren’t against looking at transgender issues. Rather, they seem to have a hierarchy of issues that could be deemed as “more pressing”. But Grehan doesn’t “think rights are a zero-sum game”.
More rights, he said, aren’t diverting attention from other important issues for universities.
