Sir, – The case between Dr Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington and NUI Galway has highlighted, once more, what has been patently obvious in the Irish university sector for many decades now ("NUI Galway ordered to promote lecturer overlooked over gender", November 18th). Female academics holding permanent senior positions such as senior lecturer, professor or dean are rare in Ireland. Female academics who are parents of young children occupying permanent senior positions are rarer still. What does this communicate to the student population, which, by contrast, displays an equal male-female balance from undergraduate through to post-doctoral levels when overall university intake figures are considered? – Yours, etc,
MARION DOWD,
Dromahair, Co Leitrim.