It was walking down a street in Kenya, surrounded by people with a different skin tone to her own, that Prof Anne Scott was struck by what it meant to be treated differently. A self-confessed introvert, she was the first female to hold a full chair in Dublin City University (DCU), a recognition of her outstanding contribution, and is a former Vice-President of the college. Now, she is the woman tasked with helping NUI Galway (NUIG) â which has been on the receiving end of court cases and criticism over gender inequality â instigate a culture change in how it treats underrepresented groups.
The first Vice-President for Equality and Diversity in any Irish university, Scott has taken up a role that, when it was first mooted, was met with cynicism by some groups that saw the creation of the role as nothing more than a move to appease those calling for change. At the time, Scott wasnât in the country, but admits that there was scepticism about what she could achieve. While she understands their concern, she also believes it to be unfounded. âI can suggest to maybe judge my role on the track record. Thatâs the only comment I can makeâ, she says speaking to The University Times.
As Irish third-level institutions continue to grapple with discrimination in their ranks, NUIG has been one of the most hard hit. A promotion round in the 2008/09 academic year, which saw several women overlooked for positions as senior lecturers, has been, and remains, an ongoing problem for the college. With cases taken to the Equality Tribunal and Labour Court, the various disputes are still being negotiated and litigated. In an open letter late last year to Scott, Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, one of the women overlooked for a promotion, criticised the managementâs response to the scandal.
I had to make them realise that respect means respect, no matter who it is youâre interacting with
She pointed out that the college has the lowest percentage of female lecturers in the country, as well as no female college deans, calling it âtotally unacceptableâ that the collegeâs issues havenât been resolved in full. Speaking before the letter was released, Scott said she would âlove to be ableâ to claim a cultural change but feels that the battle she is fighting will take âa significant amount of timeâ to win.
Scott is no stranger to fighting for a cause though. After qualifying as a nurse in Sligo and securing an undergraduate degree from Trinity, she moved to Kenya to work in a bush hospital. Here, she experienced not only what it is like to have no way to hide your identity, but also how preconceived notions can be ingrained in many people. Scott loved Kenya, calling it âa spectacularly beautiful countryâ, but found it âa huge issueâ that she couldnât blend in with her surroundings. âIt made me hugely aware of what it must have been like to have been a coloured person in Ireland in the 70s and 80sâ, she says.
Running the women and childrenâs ward in the hospital, she also witnessed a level of intolerance from her co-workers when it came to the mountain people that they would treat who were unfamiliar with modern medicine. âThe âeducatedâ nursing staff or even learner students, had a propensity to treat them as lesser because these were uneducated mountain people. So I had to make them realise that respect means respect, no matter who it is youâre interacting withâ, she explains.
These lessons are something sheâs carried with her throughout a career that included holding her own in the male-dominated environment of senior management. Often âone of maybe two womenâ chosen for a seat at the big boys table, Scott learned the importance of having systems in place which alleviated some of the issues faced by people, often women, looking to return to work after a break. When she arrived in Galway, Scott organised meetings with heads of departments, units and schools to get their opinion on what was needed to improve the collegeâs environment. Over her first six weeks, Scott met with âwell over 70 peopleâ and keeps notes of all these meetings to guide her in her day-to-day dealings. This, coupled with the recommendations from the 2015 gender equality taskforce that surveyed the collegeâs operations, presented her with a roadmap for going forward.
âThere was an enormous consistency in what they saw as three or four key priorities to begin to develop as constants to show that the university was serious about the taskforce recommendations and the agendaâ, she says. These were: proper maternity leave cover, access to replacements for those going on parental leave, access to grants for those returning from leave and for core meetings to take place during parent-friendly hours.
Very often if you do things to improve the system for women, it improves for everybody
There are also equality and diversity committees at school and college level, while a larger recommendation from the taskforce to have quotas of 40 per cent male and 40 per cent female representation on every committee is in the process of being implemented. âThose kind of things were exciting to see coming into place but it takes time to actually put them in placeâ, she says. The change to committees, according to Scott, represents âa significant historical indication of the institutionâs commitment to⊠the gender equality agendaâ with it applying the top academic body in the college as well, Academic Council.
Scott says that one of the areas where Irish universities consistently fall down is âpreparing anyone for leadershipâ. Often academics are promoted to head of department or head of school without any support and an expectation for them âjust to get on with itâ. She believes that while this might not be a recipe for disaster, then it definitely results in a âlack of real progress fastâ. While it is important to focus leadership development on women first, it is also important to roll it out âvery quicklyâ to others. âIt actually helps everyone because you know some people are natural leaders but a lot of us arenât and thereâs no difference whether youâre a man or a woman in that situationâ, she says.
While NUIG may have received a lot of criticism, it is certainly not the only institution in Ireland or even Europe facing the heat when it comes to these issues. Scott believes, however, that universities are âtrying to address it in the context of their own structures and their own historyâ. NUIG was right, in her mind, to give someone the sole responsibility of driving the equality agenda in the college. âIf itâs diluted across a number of different offices it becomes more easy to undermine the agenda. It becomes more difficult to identify accountabilityâ, she says.
A year is a relatively short time for the type of cultural change needed in institutions like NUIG, but Scott believes that they have already âseen a number of very positive responses to some of the developmentsâ. While she hasnât yet silenced all the universityâs critics, her work is making inroads on improving NUIGâs environment and public image: âVery often if you do things to improve the system for women, it improves for everybody.â