Some Are More Equal Than Others? Women Professors of Science at University College Dublin in the 1960s

• In Event: New Directions in the History of Higher Education

Abstract

The under-representation of women in senior echelons of the academy, particularly in disciplines which have been historically male-dominated and male-led, is well-documented internationally. The narrative, however, is not a linear one, and there have been intervals of alteration and narrow apertures of opportunity. This paper focuses on one of those intervals, the period 1957-1962, which saw three women professors being appointed to the Science Faculty at University College Dublin.
The paper finds, however, that while these women were successful in negotiating, even shifting, the university’s centre of gravity for a brief period, this powerbase was soon eroded and the dominant hegemony re-instated, ushering women scientists back to the margins of university activity.

Authors

• Judith Harford, University College Dublin

• Keith Murphy, University College Dublin