Through the Glass Ceiling: Career Progression Programme and Strategy for Female Academics and Researchers will present its final report today, Monday 19 November, at UCC.
A set of recommendations for supporting better career outcomes for female staff in Higher Education (HE) will be outlined at the launch.
The final report from the Through the Glass Ceiling project will be launched by Ms. Kathleen Lynch TD, Minister of State for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People. Dr Eucharia Meehan, Head of Research Programmes and Capital Investment at the Higher Education Authority and Director of the Irish Research Council, will deliver a keynote address at the event.
Issues around career progression for female academics and researchers have received increased attention at national and international levels recently, as it is widely recognised that women are under-represented at senior grades. For example, the League of European Research Universities published a report in July 2012 on Women, research and universities: excellence without gender bias in recognition of the continuing issues and loss of female research talent.
Through the Glass Ceiling, which is based in the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century in UCC and supported by the UCC Equality Committee, sought to support female academic career progression in a number of ways.
“Firstly, we provided a suite of career progression supports for women, developing a mentoring scheme and tailoring professional development programmes for women over the course of the project”, says Aifric Ó Gráda, Through the Glass Ceiling project coordinator. “The impact was significant with over 200 women participating in one or more aspects of the programme and the feedback being really positive”.
Dr Caitríona Ní Laoire, principal investigator on Through the Glass Ceiling, says: “What became very clear as the project progressed was the high demand for career development programmes like this one which are shaped by an awareness of the ways in which the sphere of work can be gendered”.
Running in tandem with the career development programme, the project also looked at addressing differences in career outcomes at sectoral and institutional levels nationally, proposing a set of recommendations based on international best practice for consideration at institutional and sectoral levels. The project team, which also included Professor Geraldine Boylan (Chair of Equality Committee at UCC), Dr Linda Connolly (Director, Institute for Social Sciences in the 21st Century) and Dr Carol Linehan (Lecturer, Department of Management and Marketing at UCC) view this policy dimension of the project as most important for achieving long-term change.
Speaking ahead of the event, Minister Lynch says: "Promoting Gender Equality is a win-win strategy for any organisation. By creating opportunities for career progression and accession to board decision-making levels, organisations are making the best use of their most valuable asset - their staff, both women and men. There is a gender gap at management and decision-making levels for female academics and researchers. This report outlines the activities and outcomes of a career progression programme and strategy for gender equality and is an example of what can be achieved through positive action measures".
The Through the Glass Ceiling project, which has facilitated collaboration between stakeholders from across the Irish university sector, was awarded funding under the Irish Government’s Equality for Women Measure (2008-2013). Accompanying the launch of the recommendations and final report will be the launch of a new national network to facilitate cooperation between different national stakeholders in the promotion of gender equality in academic and research careers.
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