Setting agendas on gender equality in the higher education sector in Ireland. Getting in but not getting on: women in top jobs in universities

Third-level institutions in western society are educating an increasingly feminised student body, with female students now outnumbering males. Professor Pat O’Connor’s research has highlighted the gap between the increasingly feminised student body and the ongoing masculinisation of senior academic staff/ management positions in higher education. O’Connor’s work has particularly focused on the scarcity of women in such ‘top jobs’ in universities, and the factors which have contributed to it. Her research is concerned with the importance of institutional leadership; the gendered construction of what constitutes valued knowledge; issues related to social justice; the contribution of diversity to innovation; and the consequent absence of role models for junior faculty and students. O’Connor’s research has set a gender equality agenda in higher education, influenced national/European policy, and informed public debate on this issue.