Mapping an agenda for gender equality in the academy

Higher educational organisations across the EU, and indeed globally, remain male-dominated. The fact that men occupy 86 per cent of all positions of Rector/ President/Vice Chancellor and 76 per cent of all full professorial positions, illustrates the way in which these organisations are designed by men for men. Their deeply embedded structural and cultural features reflect, reinforce and perpetuate patriarchal and more recently managerialist and neoliberal forces. This article provides an introduction to a Special Issue focussing on gender equality in higher education. Articles included offer a critique of how higher educational institutions across Ireland, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are addressing the perennial issue of gender equality. The Special Issue emanates from a symposium funded by the Irish Research Council and hosted in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, in October 2018. The papers are organised according to three over-arching themes: the gendered character of academia; female leadership in academia; and gendered organisations. It concludes with suggestions regarding a future research agenda.