The government has launched an action plan for gender equality in higher education aimed at accelerating the improvement of women’s representation in senior positions in colleges around Ireland.
The two-year plan was launched by Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the National Gallery today.
In a press statement, Varadkar said: “The Government is committed to equality between men and women: we have published gender pay gap legislation; we’re bringing in paid, parental leave for both parents; we’re making childcare more affordable and raising standards, and we’re doing more to promote women to the Judiciary and to State Boards.”
Varadkar outlined the government’s ambition to have a more inclusive higher education sector, stating: “Female role models in positions of authority will encourage and inspire female students to aspire to holding the top jobs in their future workplace.”
Mitchell O’Connor has been vocal about the need for gender equality in universities and set up the task force to address this issue. In a press statement, Mitchell O’Connor said: “This Government and I are committed to eradicating gender inequality in our HEI’s. I want 40% of professors within our institutions to be female by 2024.”
Following recommendations made by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in 2016, a gender equality taskforce was established to identify factors that would help women achieve gender equality in higher education institutions.
The gender equality taskforce determined that if institutions do not change their current practices, it is possible we will wait 20 years for 40 per cent of university positions to be held by women. “This would be an unacceptable scenario to which a decisive response is now imperative”, Mitchell O’Connor stated.
Data collected by the government taskforce revealed that in 2013, 18 per cent of professors were female, and this number increased to 24 per cent in 2017. This increase is despite the fact that women make up 51 per cent of lecturing staff.
Recommendations made by the taskforce include incentivising progress through funding mechanisms, using the Athena SWAN Charter to encourage equality and gender-proofing recruitment and promotion procedures.
A HEA report in 2016 found progress in gender equality to be slow, noting a one to two per cent improvement in the representation of women in senior positions. Initiatives have been developed by higher education institutes to address the lack of gender equality.
The Athena SWAN Charter awards universities which institutionalise practises that promote gender equality. Trinity’s schools of natural science, chemistry and physics have already received the bronze awards, and in 2015, the College was granted an institutional bronze award.
