The Irish Universities Association (IUA) today welcomed the Report of the Gender Equality Taskforce Action Plan 2018-2020. The IUA is fully committed to working with the Minister and Department of Education and Skills to implement the recommendations arising from the Report in order to bring about meaningful and sustainable change in gender equality in universities.
The seven member universities of the IUA have already committed to implementing in full the Taskforce recommendations in the recently published Charter for Universities as part of their active programme on equality, diversity and inclusion. This builds on the progress already achieved in recent years including the achievement of Athena Swan Bronze Award status by all seven universities and rapid progress on gender balancing in the executive management teams and Governing Authorities.
Welcoming the Taskforce Report recommendations, Jim Miley, Director General of the IUA said: “The IUA and its member universities are wholly supportive of the Taskforce recommendations and commit to working with the Department of Education to accelerate progress in gender balancing. This is an opportunity for delivering a step-change in gender equality across higher education. It will require concerted effort from all stakeholders to deliver the required change including the Department, funding agencies and the higher education institutions. We want to particularly acknowledge the leadership role of the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor in establishing this Taskforce and driving change on gender equality.”
Universities have made progress in this area including:
- All seven universities have received Athena Swan Bronze institutional awards. Securing Athena SWAN accreditation, the internationally recognised quality mark for gender equality, is an important enabling process for universities to progress the equality agenda. Currently only 9 institutions in Ireland hold this award.
- 5 out of 7 university governing authorities are comprised of at least 40% of each gender.
- 5 out of 7 university executive management teams are comprised of at least 40 % of each
- All seven universities have appointed, or are in the process of appointing, Vice-Presidents for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. This means the equality agenda will be represented at the senior management level in each university.
The IUA looks forward to participating in the soon to be established Working Group to implement the recommendations of the Gender Taskforce.
Ends.
For more information contact:
Lia O’Sullivan | Head of Communications
Irish Universities Association | lia.osullivan@iua.ie | www.iua.ie
Tel: +353 (0)1 6764948 | Direct: +353 (0)1 7996022