“A chara, – In response to Carl O’Brien’s news report of July 9th on the first female president appointed at University of Limerick, this is truly a remarkable and profoundly significant day for Irish higher education and indeed for every Irish woman …” (more)
[Aoife Prendergast, Irish Times, 11 July]
“The enduring ‘baby penalty’: Having children is exciting but challenging. Economic uncertainty, environmental anxiety, and lower fertility rates are among the contributing factors that lead many to opt out of parenthood. Babies have also been damaging to women’s careers from time immemorial, especially in traditionally male-dominated fields …” (more)
[Enrica Maria Ferrara, IFUT, 8 July]
“Sir, – Prof Pat O’Connor rightly points out that the process this year of awarding estimated Leaving Certificate grades may contain some built-in biases (‘Leaving Cert calculated grades open to danger of gender bias’, Opinion & Analysis, July 1st) …” (more)
[Lennon Ó Náraigh, Irish Times, 4 July]
“Sir, – Prof Pat O’Connor (‘Leaving Cert calculated grades open to danger of gender bias’, Opinion & Analysis, July 1st) states that in the guidelines issued to teachers regarding this process ‘there is no reference to gender bias’. This is not entirely the case …” (more)
[Letters, Irish Times, 3 July]
“Pat O’Connor, Professor Emeritus of sociology and social policy at the University of Limerick and visiting Professor at the Geary Institute, University College Dublin, speaks to Mary about how the 2020 Leaving Cert calculated grading system may result in gender bias in student’s final marks …” (audio)
[RTÉ Radio 1 – Drivetime, 1 July]
“The Department of Education and Skills assumes that teachers will act professionally when estimating the percentage mark that their students might have received in the 2020 Leaving Cert, and in the ranking of their students relative to one another …” (more)
[Pat O’Connor, Irish Times, 1 July]
“In the 2020 Executive MBA rankings produced by the Economist today, the Trinity Business School has risen to 11th in Europe and 4th across the UK and Ireland. The business school ranked first in Ireland, and scored in the top five places for gender diversity …” (more)
[Shannon Connolly, Trinity News, 29 June]
“Male graduates in their 20s are paid an average €3,000 a year more than their female counterparts in their first job after leaving college. The gender pay gap for the under 30s – predominantly honours degree graduates – rises to an average €4,500 when all ages are included …” (more)
[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 12 June]
“From the rise of authoritarianism to gender inequality, the coronavirus pandemic has forced us to confront some ugly truths. Women make up over 50% of the world’s population, over 50% of the EU’s graduates and just under 50% of grade C academic staff. However, in academia, that is where gender parity ends …” (more)
[Naoise D’Arcy, University Times, 21 May]
“Quarantined with a six-year-old child underfoot, Megan Frederickson wondered how academics were managing to write papers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns implemented to stem coronavirus spread meant that, overnight, many households worldwide had become an intersection of work, school and home life …” (more)
[Giuliana Viglione, Nature, 20 May]
“This was supposed to be a big year for Einat Lev. She planned to do field work in Hawaii and Alaska, submit a major research proposal, then finish writing the last of five papers necessary for her tenure application. In September, she would finally go before the review committee, the final step to becoming a full-fledged associate professor of seismology at Columbia University …” (more)
[Caroline Kitchener, The Lily, 24 April]
“The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) in its submission to the public consultation of the Citizen’s Assembly on Gender Equality said: ‘The Commission is also concerned about the ongoing lack of gender balance in senior academic posts in Ireland’s higher educational institutions, where there are currently no female university Presidents/Provosts, and where only 24% of Professorships are held by women …'” (more)
[IFUT, 8 April]
“In Irish universities 74% of senior academic positions are held by men (HEA, 2019a). This gives an implicit message to women students and early career women that they have no future in these organisations. It also has the immediate practical implication that there are few women in key decision-making fora in universities …” (more)
[Pat O’Connor, PublicPolicy.ie, 4 March]
“When Trinity wrote in its still-unpublished strategic plan that it aimed to have achieved a silver Athena SWAN award by 2025 – two years too late for crucial research funding deadlines – eyebrows must have been raised among those casting eyes over the document. Ireland’s universities have for years underwhelmed on Athena SWAN …” (more)
[University Times, 2 March]
“The purpose of the 20 posts approved under the Senior Academic Leadership Initiative created by Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor was to improve the representation of women in senior positions in the Irish higher educational system …” (more)
[Pat O’Connor, Irish Times, 18 February]
“Sinn Féin MLA Dr Caoimhe Archibald has said we must break down barriers and challenge misconceptions which limit women’s participation in STEM subjects and careers. Speaking on International Day of Women and Girls in Science the East Derry MLA said: ‘The theme for this year is “Investment in Women and Girls in Science for Inclusive Green Growth” focusing on the empowerment of women and girls, promoting the achievement of full and equal access to careers in science …'” (more)
[Sinn Féin, 11 February]
“Third-level Ireland is agog about the launch of a scheme of new women-only professorships. I find it terribly worrying to be so alone in thinking that this is a terrible idea. In the past, when all internal mechanisms had failed, I thought that writing open letters to the newspaper of record was a good way of making sure that minority views got a hearing …” (more)
[Mary Gallagher, In a Strange Land, 9 January]
“Women economists are under-represented across the discipline, from university departments to academic conferences and publishing houses. This column focuses on the editorial process and asks whether the referees and editors of four leading economics journals made gender-neutral publishing decisions between 2003 and 2013 …” (more)
[David Card, Stefano DellaVigna, Patricia Funk and Nagore Iriberri, Vox, 8 January]
“The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has welcomed confirmation by Minister for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell-O’Connor, TD, that 20 additional professorial positions will be created this year for women to assist gender balance in higher education institutions …” (more)
[Irish Federation of University Teachers, 7 January]
