The path to professorship: reflections from women professors in Ireland

Abstract

The under-representation of women in senior echelons of the academy is well-documented internationally. In the Irish context, the issue of gender equality has reached the active policy agenda relatively recently, largely triggered by a number of high profile lawsuits and the subsequent setting up of an expert review panel and a gender equality taskforce, both issuing landmark reports [HEA 2016. National Review of Gender Inequality in Irish Higher Education Institutions. http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/04/hea_review_of_gender_equality_in_irish_higher_education.pdf; HEA 2018. Higher Education Institutional Staff Profiles by Gender. July. http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2018/01/Higher-Education-Institutional-Staff-Profiles-by-Gender-2018.pdf]. Data on the barriers women face moving through the entrepreneurial university have slowly emerged, with now a more sophisticated understanding of the gendered nature and impact of neoliberal values and managerialist practices. But what of those women who do make it to professoriate level? What do they identify as the key enablers which facilitated their progression? Part of a national study of women professors in Ireland, in which 21 women, three in each of the seven universities nationally were interviewed, this article is based on the narratives of 10 women located in faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities, all of whom had made strategic choices not to engage in leadership/management roles. Three key themes were generated during the analysis of their testimony: the importance of academic mentors, sponsors and networks which helped position them for advancement; the value these women placed on research rather than management/leadership tracks; and the strategies they employed in order to reach the level of full professor.