Sir, – The Higher Education Authority has published its national review of gender equality among higher education staff compiled by the expert group chaired by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. It is hard-hitting and wide-reaching. In particular, the linking of funding support to university compliance with the recommendations is truly excellent. But this compliance needs to be measured by tangible results. The table published in The Irish Times (June 27th) ranking Irish universities by the percentage of females in senior posts is one such metric. This was derived from information supplied by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
The article by Peter McGuire on the same page makes reference to Ireland's position as last in Europe after Malta for its third-level glass ceiling index, as cited in the EU She report ("The great divide: why are there so few senior female academics?", June 27th).
This was the case in 2009; in 2012 this three-yearly She report did not receive data from Ireland or Malta, so this fact still stood and we continued to use it in the campaign supporting the five women at NUI Galway taking court cases for lack of promotion. But in the recent 2015 She report, which came out in May this year, Ireland had shot to seventh best out of 28 countries!
When challenged by the campaign, the HEA accepted that the data set submitted to the EU had not been “the most appropriate”. A revised index it supplied now ranks Ireland fifth worst, which still seems a big jump. It is essential that the HEA provides and publishes robust figures that allow us to assess whether there has been any improvement for academic women. We need to be able to make meaningful comparisons with other European countries, with the past, and between each of the Irish universities.
Universities currently focus on international rankings that are published annually, but not on those such as the glass ceiling index and the table published in The Irish Times. Let us use these rankings, published annually by the HEA, to embarrass them into putting right this injustice to women.
Hopefully if academia can succeed, it will make it possible elsewhere in Irish society. – Yours, etc,
MICHELINE SHEEHY
SKEFFINGTON,
Clarinbridge,
Co Galway.