In this short paper, I want to look at the position of female library staff in Irish Colleges, focusing on equality related issues, on changes which have taken place in the past ten years, and on strategies which need to be employed to effect change in the future. While I shall refer to other institutions, the main thrust of my research, much limited because of time constrains, is UCD based.
Ten years ago, in 1986, Eunice McCarthy in her study Transition to Equal Opportunity at Work in Ireland: Problems and Possibilities maintained:
“To establish to what extent women are under-represented or over-represented in job categories and hierarchical levels in organisations is now recognised as a key step in diagnosing the application of equal opportunity principles in work settings, and in the planning and implementing of a positive action programme. This step is also concerned with identifying the statistical - numerical barriers that prevent women from becoming integrated into the main stream of organisational decision-making. The numerical positioning of women in organisations is to a large extent a direct outcome of decisions relating to the recruitment, selection, placement, training and promotion of women in work settings. Once the numerical profile of women and men is outlined, many central questions can be formulated with regard to positive action goals....” [1]
This is not easy. It is rather shocking how little research has been done on libraries in Ireland. (It is surely not without significance that when organising the conference on `Women in Irish Colleges' the organisers omitted a paper on Library Staff). UCD Library has been the subject of some scrutiny: in 1988 Emer Smyth and Helen Burke produced the substantial, and, as yet, unique report Distant Peaks: a study of the Relative Staffing Levels of Women and Men in University College Dublin [2] as part of the Pilot Programme (where did it go?) on the promotion of positive action for women in UCD. It contains much useful data. In 1990, in response to College irritation with the Library, Maurice Line, assisted by Brian Enright, carried out and issued a Review of the Library, [3] and out of this the Library staff itself developed and published a well-meaning, glossy document Library: University College Dublin Strategic Plan 1992 - 1996. [4] This was succeeded by the Librarian's many versions of a Restructuring Document which foundered in 1995 because of dissatisfaction on the part of staff with inadequate job descriptions and a reluctance to provide the money needed to implement it by College.
Returning to Professor McCarthy's instructions to examine the environment in which we work, what do we see when we glance quickly, in this instance very quickly, at my place of work.
We see a large institution, a once excellent Library, much battered by public policy and a miserly administration. While the student body has increased by sixty percent, to approximately 16,370 since 1980, the percentage of the College budget enjoyed by the Library has decreased from 7.2% to 5%. This has meant a decrease in the number of permanent staff, a huge cancellation of journal titles and an enormous reduction in the number of books purchased.
We see a man, the Librarian, in charge. We see a female Deputy Librarian- this is typical of many of the Library structures at the moment, for example, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and University of Limerick. All five Sub-Librarians are female, which is unusual. Apart from the resignation of the only male Sub-Librarian in 1991, who was not replaced at this grade, there has been little change in senior personnel in the past decade.
Other grades have been less static, both in terms of changes in gender balance and in career development. In what is considered the career grade in the Library - that of Assistant Librarian - in the sense that, once appointed, in theory one can progress to the post of Librarian (and some do!) - there are thirty three, eight of whom are male. Five of the male Assistant Librarians and sixteen of the female are at the senior grade of Assistant Librarian I. Ten of the staff at Assistant Librarian II are on temporary contracts.
Of the forty-seven Library Assistants in UCD, six are male, thirty three are permanent, and six, all female, are at the Senior Library Assistant grade.
All nine Library Attendants are male. Since 1990, a new cohort of staff has been employed - Library Assistants Shelving Staff - who work shifts of four hours, morning or afternoon, shelving library material. Many of this group also do evening service desk duty. All thirty two so employed are women, on temporary contract, most are married with family responsibilities. They remain, regardless of how many years of service, on the first point of the Library Assistant scale.
UCD no longer employs its own cleaners; all the women who clean the Library work for outside contractors.
The anger and frustration of Library Assistants at the lack of career development is very evident in Distant Peaks: 82% of those surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of promotional routes; in all 70% of the Library staff then surveyed expressed dissatisfaction. [5] Since that time, the post of Senior Library Assistant has been created and, although as yet it is limited to six, all the successful candidates were from the existing staff. One of the main dissatisfactions of Library Assistants in 1988 was that in spite of acquiring the necessary formal qualifications for employment as an Assistant Librarian - namely a degree and professional qualification - none had been appointed to the higher grade and those so qualified had to seek outside UCD for promotional positions. This too has changed: two former Library Assistants now work as Assistant Librarians II, albeit in a temporary capacity in both instances.
One of the recommendations of the Line - Enright Report was that the distinction between Assistant Librarian I and II should be abolished. [6] This was finally achieved in UCD in 1994 after a Labour Relations Commission Recommendation (some time after Library staff in Maynooth had negotiated the same claim with their Management). Now once having reached the top of the scale, Assistant Librarians II can apply for progression. It is not automatic, as in Trinity College, but depends on a candidate satisfactorily meeting certain criteria laid down by Management and going before an Interview Board composed of Library Management, Personnel and Faculty. To date eight members of the staff have been progressed, seven of them female. As yet, staff in DCU have been unsuccessful in their efforts to achieve progression. But the fact that so many of the Assistant Librarians II are temporary, will eliminate this success as, while temporary staff are now paid increments, they do not proceed to the final point of the scale.
While the creation of the post of Senior Library Assistant and the removal of the bar between Assistant Librarian I and Assistant Librarian II were in keeping with the recommendations of the Line - Enright Report, both initiatives were very much Union driven.
But much dissatisfaction remains. The volume, intensity and scope of library work have increased considerably owing to increased student numbers, the expansion of new courses and the employment of new technology. There is an ever-widening gap in salary scales from Sub-Librarian upwards and all other staff, a gap that is not commensurate with duties and responsibilities. There is a vacuum at the core of the management structure which leads to an inflexible inertia.
Maternity leave and career breaks have been available, and availed of, by library staff, and while dissatisfaction was expressed with the former in the 1988 survey published in Distant Peaks, I think that this dissatisfaction had more to do with the statutory entitlements and the then unfamiliar disruption caused by short-term contracts, rather than the Library operation of the scheme. More recently, the Library has been engaged in a pilot Job-Sharing Scheme in College. All the participants are female and all have been satisfied with the draft scheme which is about to become College Policy, having just been accepted by the Governing Body.
In April 1996, the College policy document on Sexual Harassment was issued to all staff and students. UCD also has a published Equal Employment Opportunities Policy; but what has changed?
Ailbhe Smyth (1995) wrote:
“UCD adopted an Equal Opportunities Policy because it was under pressure to do so from within the university, and because drafting an Equal Opportunities Policy is a `look-good, low-cost' measure with a `plus' rating in Ireland and in the EU. However, women in UCD are not fooled into thinking that `look good/sound good' policies mean real changes in their status, conditions of work and career possibilities. So far, most emphasis has been placed on the importance of personal change and none on the radical restructuring of the institution that would be required for gender and class-based inequalities to be eradicated”. [7]
Although there are now female Librarians in large institutions in the Republic - in the Royal College of Surgeons and University College Galway - very little has changed, it seems. Most recent appointments at senior level have been men; in University College Cork, men have been appointed to the posts of Librarian and Deputy Librarian in 1995/96. In UCD, and in the Irish Library world generally, there is very little perceived consciousness of gender as an issue. Many of the founding members of the UCD Women's Studies Forum, precursor to the Women's Education Research and Resource Centre, were members of the library staff; there is a long and strong tradition of trade union activity in the library; but none of this political awareness has directly engaged with gender in the library. (As I write I begin to wonder if this is not because of the gender balance in the library management structure?) Nor is there a caucus of feminist Librarians, however strongly individuals may feel, in the Library Association of Ireland.
Is the explanation in the nature of the beast? Redfern (1984) suggested
“Since feminism is a political stance which draws attention to the external factors which limit women's lives, we can predict that it may be slow to make an impact in a professional group which accepts the mores of conservation in both its practice and its education institutions.” [8]
While this seems to be so here, in Britain the awareness of sexual discrimination gave rise to groups such as Women in Libraries (WIL) whose declared aim was to improve the position of all women who work in libraries through positive action, career development programmes and the monitoring of sex-stereotyping in library stock. It provided a forum for discussion, produced a newsletter, organised conferences and was a focus point to promote the interests of female Librarians.
Perhaps because it is a female dominated profession numerically, there is much preoccupation in library literature with image. Edwards, rather harshly, stated in 1986:
“no one with any reasonable subject background goes in for librarianship... the result is a vicious circle as...drifters become the next generation of boring librarians, totally devoid of the motivation to improve their drab libraries.” [9]
At the Annual Conference of the Irish National and University Library Staff (INULS) in Belfast, June, 1995, two (male) Library Directors spent some time telling their audience of their image problems - their remarks were addressed, one suspects, to the professional Librarians in the gathering, all deemed to be over-educated, too-costly, spinsters. Is it because of the image, that of the disappointed spinster and the Hush-Puppied, dandruff-sprinkled male, that librarianship is so often under attack? The characteristics associated with the profession are those of a retiring introvert, vaguely service-driven, and not those associated with dynamic leadership.
How much has computer technology affected this image? Has the status of Systems and Subject Librarians increased because of their associated with computers? Has the technology led to `deprofessionalisation' or `deskilling'? Is it providing greater opportunities for para-professional staff - are women to the fore in the revolution?
These are questions for the future.
What of the future?
Edwards, Adam, “Examining the Image” in Library Association Record 88(8); 1986.
Harris, Roma M., Librarianship: The Erosion of a Women's Profession; N.J. Norwood, Ablex Publishing; 1992.
Higher Education Funding Council for England, Joint Funding Councils Libraries Review Group: Report; Higher Education Funding Council for England; Bristol; 1993.
Hussey, Caroline, (Ed.), Equal Opportunities for Men and Women in Higher Education in Ireland; Audio Visual Centre, University College Dublin; 1989.
Line, Maurice and Brian Enright, Review of University College Dublin Library; Unpublished Report; University College Dublin; 1990.
McCarthy, Eunice, Transition to Equal Opportunity at Work in Ireland: Problems and Possibilities; Employment Equality Agency; Dublin; 1986.
Redfern, Margaret, “Feminism and Education for Library and Information Work” in Women and Librarianship, J. Shuter, (Ed.); MCB University Press; Bradford; 1984.
Shuter, Janet, Women and Librarianship; MCB University Press.; Bradford; 1984.
Smyth, Ailbhe, “Women's Studies at University College Dublin and its Relation to Equal Opportunities Policies” in Equal Opportunities for Women at European Universities/Frauenforderung an Europaischen Universitaten, C. Farber and A. Hanningen, (Eds.); Freie Universitat Berlin; 1995.
Smyth, Emer and Helen Burke, Distant Peaks: A Study of the Relative Staffing Levels of Women and Men in University College Dublin; University College Dublin; 1988.
University College Dublin, Library, University College Dublin: Strategic Plan 1992 - 1996; Unpublished Report; University College Dublin; 1991.
[1] Eunice McCarthy, Transition to Equal Opportunity at Work in Ireland: Problems and Possibilities, Employment Equality Agency; Dublin; 1984. p. 9.Return to Main Text
[2] Emer Smyth and Helen Burke, Distant Peaks: A Study of the Relative Staffing Levels of Women and Men in University College Dublin; UCD; Dublin; 1988.Return to Main Text
[3] Maurice Line and Brian Enright, Review of University College Dublin Library; Unpublished Report; UCD; 1990.Return to Main Text
[4] University College Dublin, Library, University College Dublin: Strategic Plan 1992-1996; Unpublished Report; UCD; 1991.Return to Main Text
[5] Emer Smyth and Helen Burke, op. cit.Return to Main Text
[6] Maurice Line and Brian Enright, op. cit.Return to Main Text
[7] Ailbhe Smyth, “Women's Studies in University College Dublin and its Relation to Equal Opportunities Policies” in Equal Opportunities for Women at European Universities/Frauenforderung an Europaischen Universitaten, C. Farber and A. Hanningen (Eds.); Freie Universitat Berlin; 1995. p. 146.Return to Main Text
[8] Margaret Redfern, “Feminism and Education for Library and Information Work” in Women and Librarianship, J. Shuter, (Ed.); MCB University Press; Bradford; 1984. p. 23.Return to Main Text
[9] Adam Edwards, “Examining the Image” in Library Association Record 88(8); 1986. p. 339.Return to Main Text