NUIG Discrimination Case not an Isolated Incident
Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, the botanist who recently won a court case against NUI Galway after her gender led the university not to consider her for a promotion, recently highlighted at a guest lecture in UCC that her story is far from being an isolated incident.In testament to this fact, Sheehy Skeffington is using the €70,000 she was awarded following her legal victory to help cover the legal fees of five other female lecturers in NUIG who were also denied promotions. These women applied for promotions in 2009, at the same time as Sheehy Skeffington, but were also denied on the basis of their gender.Following her successful court case, the botanist was invited by NUIG to sit on a task force which would review the university’s gender equality practices. However Sheehy Skeffington has declined to do so unless three conditions are met: that the university promotes the five women who were refused in 2009; that NUI Galway admits that the subsequent round of promotions in 2014, for which there have been at least 20 appeals, was also flawed; and that the university commits to working towards having an equal number of women as men in senior posts.
"Sheehy Skeffington is using the €70,000 she was awarded following her legal victory to help cover the legal fees of five other female lecturers in NUIG who were also denied promotions."
On these conditions, Sheehy Skeffington stated, “I set out my three conditions because the university tried to say I was on the task force, when I had not agreed to anything! In my view, the task force is a way of batting the problem into the future. Before any 'review' is done, the serious injustices to women, especially in the 2008/09 round of promotions to Senior Lecture, when only 6% of female candidates were promoted – i.e. one – and 50% of male candidates (16) were promoted, need redressing.”However, since these requests were issued, there has been no contact between NUIG and Sheehy Skeffingon. “I have had no further interaction with the university, but the President repeatedly states at meetings and to the press that his legal advice is that he cannot promote the five women who, like me, were deemed eligible for promotion in 2008/09 but were not promoted.”The academic further highlighted to The Express that the event is far from limited to the academic sector: “I have heard countless cases of problems, even within the university, amongst administration, technical and grounds staff. It is not my sphere of knowledge but women in those sectors are more vulnerable and less represented at senior positions than amongst us academics. We must not forget that the issue is widespread.“I have also had a huge amount of messages from outside academia, some with serious cases of their own. I cannot pass judgement on these but it is very clear from responses I am getting regularly on the street, that this is a widespread issue that my case has tapped into.”On the response to her campaign, Sheehy Skeffington noted that while it would be easy for men within academia to ignore her efforts this has not been the case. “I have had a huge response from peers and academics in other institutions – all positive. Very many are from women who find themselves in similar positions but a lot of men also agree that the climate and mind-set that discriminates against women, also affects men, everyone's work-life balance and working relations throughout academia.”
"This is a widespread issue that my case has tapped into.”
Since the interview, over the past weekend, a ‘misogynistic’ health questionnaire has left staff up in arms, with NUIG initially defending their assessment form which includes questions about a female’s menstrual cycle to establish if they are fit for the job. The questionnaire has since been suspended.