Ireland just announced its new plan to fight gender inequality in higher education by creating women-only professor positions in universities and tech institutes. The plan would make sure that around 40% of professor positions would be held by women by 2024. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that the higher education of Ireland can fully realise the benefits of gender diversity after a long history of female under representation in senior university positions. There has never been a female president at any of Ireland's universities and only 2 presidents at Ireland's technological institutes have been women. Ireland's prime minister applauds the plan because he believes it will help uproot the gender inequalities in Ireland.
I think this is an interesting step for Ireland. I'm pretty cynical most of the time in my analysis of most things, but for this event I cannot really find an overarching selfish gain of, say, people in power. Maybe the prime minister is gaining a lot more support by hopping on the women's equality bandwagon? Anyways, that statement is extremely speculatory, and so... I digress. No matter the motivation, the results of this plan are still pointed in a positive direction in Ireland. This reminds me of the early Antebellum age feminist movement but more specifically Catherine Beecher who advocated women to take jobs as teachers. This situation is a little above Beecher's intended ideas, but it is still relevant nevertheless. It's pretty amazing how in the U.S. education for women has been taboo for the vast majority of the country's history and now maybe Ireland will set an example for the U.S. and other countries to follow. It is still a tad unfortunate that we have to make such plans and policies for some semblance of equality, but c’est la vie, right?
Here's the article:
https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/11/13/europe/ireland-women-only-professors-intl/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Fworld
I think it's good that you're cynical when you analyze, it's important to check facts and make sure everything makes sense. I like that you related this to another women's movement that had to do with teaching, that was like a two in one synthesis. Ireland is going in the right direction, and I'm curious to see what people will say. There has been so much female under representation, and I'm glad that people are taking steps to end that.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree I am glad that things are finally starting to get done!!!!!!! Sad that they had to implement a plan though this should come naturally not by force.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the plan. I think that this may be controversial as many may challenge the abilty of these women to teach over the male professors that were also going for jobs. While I think this is a step in the right direction for Ireland, I feel there will be a lot of backlash on this issue.
Delete-Ryan Mecca