Ninth Level Ireland

“In recent months, a number of high profile cases have focused attention on how credit is attributed to the creation of academic research and in particular the way in which the role of women is often diminished or effaced as part of this process. In this post Donica Belisle and Kiera Mitchell highlight the historical precedent of Mary Quayle Innis and the unrecognised impact she had on her husband Harold Adams Innis’ career and suggest that the social sciences and humanities would benefit from a wider interpretation of scholarly attribution than is currently practiced …” (more)

[LSE Impact Blog, 18 September]

“Many secondary school girls face an ‘information and confidence gap’ over so-called Stem subjects such as science, technology, engineering and maths, according to a new survey. Some 64% of girls say they don’t know enough about Stem, while 26% of students say here are easier ways of getting CAO points than choosing to study Stem …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 12 September]

“Despite being better educated overall – women aged 25-64, with a degree in Ireland earn 28% less than their male counterparts, according to a new report. This is among the findings in an annual overview of structure, finances and performance of education systems in the developed world, by the international think-tank OECD …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 10 September]

“Ireland has the largest pay gap between men and women with third level qualifications in the OECD. Education at a Glance, which was published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, shows that men educated to third level in Ireland earn more than their female peers …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 10 September]

“The number of women climbing the career ladder in science is ‘disappointingly low’, say researchers. Women make up half of students in the life sciences, but only one in four professors, according to data from 500 scientific institutions worldwide …” (more)

[Helen Briggs, BBC News, 6 September]

“Trinity students will soon be able to opt for gender neutral pronouns in official College records, marking a significant expansion to the College’s gender recognition policies. Students will be addressed by their first name in College letters and emails …” (more)

[Emer Moreau, University Times, 4 September]

Abstract: Gender segregation in higher education (GSHE) is recognized as a key factor to explain the persistence of gender inequalities in the labor market despite the reversal of gender gap in educational attainment. Women are systematically overrepresented in fields of study, such as social sciences and the humanities, which offer relatively poor labor market prospects; at the same time, they are underrepresented in fields that perform above the average, as engineering and ICT. Several explanations for GSHE have been proposed in the literature, but their explanatory power has to be assessed yet. Using a rich longitudinal dataset on a recent cohort of Italian upper secondary school leavers, in this paper we jointly test seven potential mechanisms for GSHE. Our results show that rational choice explanations—such as skill-based explanations and gender differences in career preferences—fail to account for GSHE. On the contrary, expressive motivations related to preferences for school subjects and for specific occupations are found to mediate to a significant extent GSHE. However, our most important result concerns the key role of curricular track choice at upper secondary level which, alone, mediates two third of the gender difference in access to the humanities and social sciences and one third of the gender difference in access to engineering and ICT.

Carlo Barone and Giulia Assirelli, Gender segregation in higher education: an empirical test of seven explanations. Higher Education, first online: 3 September 2019.

“Ireland, May 1969, and St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Co Kildare, was causing a stir. An Irish Times journalist paid a visit to the seminary, founded in 1795, and now separate to what became Maynooth University …” (more)

[Una Mullally, Irish Times, 20 August]

“Girls have once again outperformed boys in a majority of higher level subjects in this year’s Leaving Cert. A gender breakdown of the results shows girls secured a higher proportion of top grades – H1s, H2s and H3s, or 70-100% – across most subjects …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 15 August]

“In June, we were the first company to put an unmanned self-driving truck on a public highway. We test-drove a commercial truck for nine miles along the Florida Turnpike in the United States with nobody in it, changed lanes and kept a speed of 55mph …” (more)

[Rebecca Feeney Barry, Independent, 8 August]

“A chara, – The creation of 75 women-only professorships is a textbook example of how members of the higher socio-economic classes who have connections and influence in political and media circles can bend the the Government into making irrational and fiscally irresponsible decisions to their advantage, with all parties assuming the taxpayer will foot the substantial bill …” (more)

[Dave Slater, Irish Times, 25 July]

“Sir, – In their analysis of the Senior Academic Leadership Initiative (SALI), Muireann Lynch and Selina McCoy urge consideration of its ‘unintended consequences’ (‘Will female-only professorships make the difference?’, Opinion and Analysis, July 15th). One such consequence, they argue, is that ‘professors generally do less teaching than lecturers, so the visibility of women to students may best be improved by gender balance at all levels’ …” (more)

[Niall Madden, Irish Times, 24 July]

“Within a year, a pay gap emerged between male and female graduates, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show. Men who graduated from higher education here in 2012 were earning an average weekly wage of €425 the year after they graduated – €1,055 a year more than women who graduated at the same time …” (more)

[Jess Casey, Irish Examiner, 18 July]

“Sir, – In examining the new female-only professorships scheme, Muireann Lynch and Selina McCoy argue that we would be better off tackling gender inequality by changing the Stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) stereotypes that shape education and career choices from childhood (‘Will female-only professorships make the difference?’, Opinion and Analysis, July 15th) …” (more)

[Rachel Hilliard, Irish Times, 19 July]

“Gender balance in higher education institutions is on the way, but not fast enough. This, in a nutshell, is the argument for female-only professorships. But will they make a difference? The recent report of the gender equality taskforce concluded that, based on current trends, it could take 20 years to reach a situation were 40% of professors are women …” (more)

[Muireann Lynch and Selina McCoy, Irish Times, 15 July]

“In the almost two years since Mary Mitchell O’Connor became the country’s first Minister for Higher Education, it can hardly be disputed that gender equality has been the issue to dominate her time in office. From establishing a dedicated Gender Equality Taskforce to creating 45 new senior posts in higher education institutes that are gender-specific, Mitchell O’Connor has been insistent in her commitment to championing women in academia, and to ushering in a new era of gender equality in higher education …” (more)

[University Times, 30 June]

“I’ve been so busy over the last week or so that I forgot to mention that on Friday (21st June) the Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor announced a new scheme to improve the gender balance in senior academic roles in Irish universities …” (more)

[In the Dark, 27 June]

“Summer solstice 2019: the day higher education in Ireland changed forever. I officially opened the call to higher education institutions to apply for new professorial and senior lecturer posts – gender-specific posts. The third-level sector in Ireland is underpinned by gender inequality, gender discrimination and instructional bias …” (more)

[Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Independent, 27 June]

“This week saw a sober assessment of the impact – both positive but also depressingly negative – of schemes to improve gender equality. As the Athena Swan Review Group wrestles with how to improve their own awards, it is important to learn from mistakes as well as successes. In years gone by I spoke up for Athena Swan …” (more)

[Athene Donald’s Blog, 22 June]

“The first of up to 45 women-only professorships aimed at tacking gender inequality in higher education are due to be made before the end of this year. Minister of State for higher education Mary Mitchell O’Connor on Friday officially opened applications to the what is called the ‘senior academic leadership initiative’ …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 21 June]