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A LECTURER WHO was passed over for promotion by NUI Galway has welcomed a ruling by the Equality Tribunal ordering the college to pay her €70,000 in damages and immediately promote her.
Dr Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington, who lectures in botany, went forward for a senior post in 2009, but failed to get the job.
The Equality Tribunal found the college’s hiring process was flawed, and that the lecturer was discriminated against on grounds of gender.
In a statement today, NUIG said it accepted the decision ”unreservedly” and would take “immediate steps to implement the Tribunal’s findings”.
The University initiated “a major review of Senior Lecturer promotion procedures in 2012/13,” the statement said.
“Following the review, the University introduced a new promotion scheme in 2014 which resulted in 28 promotions, one third of which were promotions of female staff members.”
It concluded:
The University very much regrets the distress caused to Dr Sheehy-Skeffington in this matter, thanks her for her contribution over many years and wishes her well in the future.
Speaking to RTÉ, Sheehy-Skeffington said the finding was a “landmark” decision.
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Most colleges in this country are old boys clubs. This doesn’t surprise me
old boys club is every where,
I did 3 yrs in college doing applied social studies. It was rife here. It was unreal
Law was a girl’s club and they didn’t bother to hide it
Oh really, I find your statistics nonsensical because I had this personal experience of things, which clearly invalidates all of the research.
Pontius, predictably if there is an article that even remotely discusses women and the treatment of women you are always there with a thinly veiled hate comment leveled at the women. What happened to you that you have such a low opinion of the opposite gender. Its sad.
This woman was found to have been discriminated against on the basis of gender. This is bad and should not happen. What is your comment – oh well my college experience it was all gynocentric, girls club, sexist. Moan moan moan. Its all about you.
Depends really. I am in a profession where at undergraduate level men are by far in the minority but at senior professional levels the men by far outnumber women. I’m sure the reasons behind this are complex, but it is certainly worth a wonder…
I worked with female managers before and they always promoted the females in the group, giving them all the credit and high performance ratings. I guess that it cuts both ways.
here in lies the problem.jesus how stupid is this country
The country didn’t do anything. Her employer did, the country ruled against them
Yes from my reading ‘this country’ was what fixed the problem.
I’m doing a PhD in math and I’m one of only 2 girls out of about 25 students. There are two female maths lectures and about 20 men. I do think women tend to go into social sciences more, and I think sometimes because of that women are not seen as being as capable (I want to use a different word but can’t think of it, it’s a good thing I’m not in an English PhD !) as men to be promoted in STEM areas. Just my feelings on it
…women are too often seen as less STEM capable. While it is not right to generalise, the fact is that fewer women either show less interest or aptitude for those subjects, ‘math’ included. Of course that does not mean women cannot excel in these fields and they do every day. Just as men must admit they cannot give birth to children naturally, we must recognise and embrace the gender difference rather than try to make same that which is not. Equal, but not the same.
There are many more women capable of the sciences etc, then is given credit. However they are expected to have a career and then do most of the home work load. Any family where both are working must divide the home and family work load equally, or divide it up so both adults work load in and out of the home breaks down so that each adult has the same load, fulfillment and appreciation for the out of/ in home, work they do.
@Pontius Pilatus the problem with gender equality is less jobs for men. I would have thought being in a minority in the Social Science class would give you sympathy for how women continue to struggle in STEM, for example like this woman who took the case. Many of them feel obliged to quit too because of the oppressive atmosphere. Perhaps too big a sacrifice made a stone of your heart to misquote Yeats.
Gender equality wouldn’t mean fewer jobs for men. There’s more men unemployed than women
@Silver planet. I kinda agree with you. I think the recession affected men more than women in that the construction sector suffered most and women tend to congregate in safe jobs like teaching, nursing etc. However, at the higher echelons of these areas men dominate e.g. fewer men do nursing but they disproportionately occupy the top jobs in same. The same applies to teaching, So what I should say is it means fewer jobs at the top for men.
There was a story earlier about a polish worker sacked by tesco for wanting time of (granted its different but in ways similar cause he applied for something) he got €12,000 and the 2 finger salute, she gets €70,000 and a promotion, what’s that all about
@Brian Gormley Equality Tribunal decisions are linked to a person’s salary. The Polish worker was on a lower salary and he was not actually dismissed.
It’s kind of sad that the big improvement resulted in a third of the new promotions going to females. Not that there should be quotas either, but is it just that females aren’t staying in academia?
I suppose women tend to have (or are perceived to have) more caring responsibilites outside work @michael church
Academia is very precarious employment, very often going from contract to contract, which means it disproportionately discriminates against women as if you decide to have children or need to care for someone you are replaced with another contract worker with no means of recourse. No job security, very poorly defined career progression and a huge workload out side of contracted hours. I’m a PhD student at the moment and I hold no hope of getting steady employment within academia, don’t ask me what else I’ll do but I know it probably won’t be that!
@Rebecca O’Neill let’s hope cases like Dr Sheehy Skeffington and this make a difference: http://www.thejournal.ie/nui-galway-lecturer-discrimination-1521678-Jun2014/
It won’t because their is a tier of preferential treatment. Now with mass-immigration, universities will be obliged to meet racial positive discrimination quotas before women’s needs and the gender quota. As much how America wanted a non-white male before a white female. In the unjust world of the cultural marxism, where hypocrisy reigns and claims for the struggle of equality is in reality met with their actions of inequality, the non-white male trumps a white female, even though she may have been in the running longer or better qualified.
*there
@Pontius Pilatus reverts to historical namesake and washes his hands from the debate.
You think that years of statistics and verifiable data are trumped by your personal experiences and you have the audacity to talk about others being arrogant?… Seriously?
Ha Pontius so a woman is not allowed to consider herself oppressed but your opinion of your college years as being controlled by sexist, gynocentric, girls clubs is perfectly valid? Why your experience and not hers – could it be….shock…that both are valid experiences and point towards inequalities in our university system, one of which has been highlighted by this womans case?.
I don’t feel oppressed. ‘ Direct quote from what I said. Feel free to scroll up ‘ I would have thought being in a minority in the Social Science class would give you sympathy for how women continue to struggle in STEM, for example like this woman who took the case.’
I am merely saying that Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, a scientist, felt discriminated against and took a case to the Equality Tribunal. She won.
“Many of them feel obliged to quit too because of the oppressive atmosphere”
You missed that bit
@Silver planet. And they do. There is a huge problem with women leaving STEM. If thejournal.ie don’t mind me linking to another article: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/13/3287861/women-leaving-stem-jobs/
How do you immediately promote someone and how does an outside body decide who should be promoted in any organisation. This kinda outcome is more offensive to women than anything, I feel
@Eugene Walsh the Equality Tribunal is a court. Courts remedy wrongs.
I think you’ll find the equality tribunal Is not a court, it’s an independent body used as a mediator and must remain impartial
It’s principal role is to investigate complaints of discrimination. It i make decisions and awards redress and orders actions like in this case – that Dr Sheehy Skeffington be promoted. These decisions are legally binding. Otherwise the Tribunal decisions would not be important enough to warrant three articles in thejournal.ie today.
@Pontius Pilatus sorry to be so late in getting back to you. Work blocks commenting on thejournal.ie : http://witsireland.com/activities/lifetime-achievement-awards/
If you don’t want to read it all it says that female undergraduates are at a historical low in Ireland.
There is also a document prepared by accenture. Obviously i can’t attach that but if you google ‘ Accenture women stem’ it will come up.
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