Senior academic says gender matters for economic growth

Sunday, March 9, 2014 - 00:00

Speaking at an event to mark International Women’s Day at the National University of Ireland Maynooth on Friday, March 7th, 2014, Professor Pat O’Connor took the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to task for their reluctance to incorporate gender profiling into new strategic planning for the higher education sector.

“We need to address the fact that over 80% of senior academics and of those in senior management positions in publicly funded universities are men,” she said. “University Presidents have the power to alter the gender profile of their senior management team.  The challenge of embracing diversity is a leadership challenge and one that must be faced if universities are to be drivers of innovation in the 21st century.”   O’Connor went on to suggest that bringing women to the top table enhances overall capacity, leading to better decision-making and innovation which ultimately can contribute to economic growth.

Professor Pat O’Connor was the first woman to be appointed at full Professorial level in the University of Limerick in 1997. She served for ten years as the Founding Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (2000-2010).  A sociologist by profession, she is an expert on gender and organisations. 
 

O’Connor believes that change is possible and pointed out that one Irish university moved from having no women at professoriate level to having one in three women at that level over a 15 year period.  Awareness of the institutional barriers to gender advancement are higher outside than in the university, she observed:  “In senior management, academic men who had worked outside the Irish university system were most likely to see gender as a systemic issue. Male academic senior managers who had only worked in the Irish university system were most likely to see women as ‘the problem’.”

‘Gender Equality: from aspiration to implementation’ was hosted by President Philip Nolan and the Gender Equality Working Group of Maynooth University, to mark International Women’s Day

The seminar also featured contributions from Greg Sparks, a founding partner of RSM Farrell Grant Sparks, who specialises in consulting and corporate finance, with a particular focus on programme planning and implementation, and change management, and Rachel Doyle, Head of Outreach at the National Women’s Council of Ireland.  

Maynooth University is fully committed to developing greater gender equity on the campus, President Nolan said, announcing plans to hire a programme manager to oversee the development of a gender equity strategy and guidelines for implementation. 

Photocaption: Prof Pat O'Connor, University of Limerick (above). Delegates at the ​discussion on 'Gender Equality: from aspiration to implementation' 

Further information: 
Deirdre Watters, Communications             +353 1 708 3363 / +353 86 803 5274