Disrupting the status quo? Discrimination in academic promotions

Abstract

In June 2016 the HEA Report of the Expert Group: HEA National Review of Gender Equality in Higher Education Institutions (Gender Equality Review) reported and stated that there was a need for “radical action” without which they could not guarantee that Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) would “ever be free of gender inequality.” This report was commissioned in the aftermath of the now high profile case of Sheehy-Skeffington v National University of Ireland Galway (hereinafter NUI Galway) and the controversy surrounding this decision. This paper addresses the decision in Sheehy-Skeffington v NUI Galway, the fall out from that decision and the recommendations of the HEA’s Gender Equality Review as regards recruitment and promotion. In particular this paper looks at that recommendation considered most radical, yet also considered necessary namely the introduction of mandatory gender quotas. This paper seeks to assess why it was deemed necessary for the Expert Review Group to recommend the introduction of mandatory quotas and to posit the question – what happens if the HEI’s do not comply with that recommendation?