TCGEL to guide 10th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education

Posted on: 23 November 2017

Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Minister of State with special responsibility for Higher Education, has announced that Ireland will host the 10th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education — with the newly launched Trinity Centre for Gender Equality and Leadership (TCGEL) set to play a leading role in its organisation.

This is the first occasion that this major biennial conference will be held in Ireland. It will bring together hundreds of gender equality practitioners, researchers and administrators from Europe and beyond.

Previous conferences were organised by a local group, consisting of a number of stakeholders, but TCGEL will this time work closely with representatives from the Irish universities, Institutes of Technology and other stakeholders in framing a programme for the conference.

The conference provides an international forum to discuss and exchange information and experiences on the challenges related to gender in academia, gender equality promotion and interventions in higher education and research institutions.

Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD, said: “Hosting of this conference is an ideal opportunity for Ireland to outline the advances we are making towards tackling gender inequality in our third level institutions. These conferences provide a major international meeting point of higher education researchers and policy makers, and we can learn from the experiences of colleagues in other countries, to assist us in addressing the challenges that we all face.”

The conferences provide a unique international forum for networking and the discussion and exchange of information, experiences, policies and research findings from universities, higher education institutions and non-university research institutions.

The European Network on Gender Equality in Higher Education, which was established as a result of the conferences, provides an international forum to share information about good practices and experiences as well as research results concerning changes and challenges related to gender equality in academia. It connects over 500 members from over 30 countries

Professor Eileen Drew, Director of TCGEL, said: “Themes covered in previous conferences have reflected contemporary European and host country concerns with a view to identifying new developments and innovative solutions to persistent shared problems of inequalities in higher education and research.”

“Many currently timely topics have been addressed. For example, in the first conference held in 1998, topics like sexual harassment and bullying in universities, and LGTB issues, were key topics. Sadly these topics bear revisiting in 2018.”

“Through our involvement in the FP7 Project INTEGER (Institutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research) and the current H2020 Project 'Systemic Action for Gender Equality', the Trinity Centre for Gender Equality and Leadership (TCGEL) have developed a reputation and level of expertise necessary in organising this international conference.”

With gender equality so actively on the Irish agenda in the HEI landscape, through the entry of Athena SWAN into Irish HEIs and the HEA Review and monitoring, Ireland is well placed to showcase advances toward gender equality at third level and highlight the sector in Ireland as a 'good place to work' and to study.