UL has the highest % of female professors of any Irish University

The University of Limerick has recently been selected as the only Irish university to participate in FESTA - Female Empowerment in Science and Technology in Academia – a cross national project. A European Commission FP7 Funded initiative, FESTA is a five year collaborative project with partner universities in Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey.  FESTA is concerned with implementing changes in the working environment of academic researchers, to encourage female researchers to stay and make a career in the academy and to create organizational environments where their competence is valued and fostered. In particular, the European initiative will seek to address the working environment of researchers in the lower levels of their careers, to make it possible for them to advance to the ranks of highest scientific expertise.

Professor Pat O’Connor, FESTA spokesperson said; “This success builds on UL’s track record as a leader in gender initiatives. This has seen it move from a position where it had no woman at full Professorial level in 1997, to one where it now has the highest proportion of women in Irish universities at this level’.

The HEA preliminary figures show that whereas on average, women constitute 18 per cent of those at full professorial level in Irish universities, the University of Limerick, at 34 per cent has almost twice that proportion.

The University of Limerick’s track record of success in researching and promoting gender equality has been facilitated by the support of Atlantic Philanthropies and Science Foundation Ireland. In 2007, UL set targets for female representation which it has exceeded.  The target for the proportion of women at Senior Lecturer or above was set at 15%, and 26% has been achieved, while a target of 37% was set for the proportion of women at Lecturer Level and 48% has been achieved. 

However, reflecting worldwide trends, women are not as well represented in Science, Technology and Engineering disciplines. In these areas women make up only 10 per cent of those at Senior Lecturer or above, and only 22 per cent of those at Lecturer level.  This project will examine the reasons for women’s universal under-representation at senior levels by doing research into the working environment of academics and researchers in science, engineering and technology related disciplines.