From medicine to maritime, we speak to the women who are breaking boundaries

Meet four women working in primarily male-dominated careers about their experience and advice for younger women

Some of the women breaking boundaries in the professions

With women and girls representing half of the world’s population, gender equality, has been shown to empower women, prompting productivity and economic growth. Women have made incredible progress in breaking down boundaries and leading the way in all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), yet the gender gap has persisted.

Prof Patricia Maguire. UCD School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science

Professor Patricia Maguire

Professor Patricia Maguire, Professor in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science in University College Dublin says that as a young aspiring scientist she encountered an unequal playing field. “On two specific occasions, in different roles, I remember finding out that I was being paid less than my male counterparts for the exact same job, and the exact same qualifications,” she says. “That made me much more determined I think.” That determination has meant Maguire has carved out a specific career specialising in the intricacies of blood. As a lecturer and researcher, Maguire is involved in creating new diagnostic tools in women’s health. Encouraging an innate curiosity, Maguire credits a teacher who taught her the “art of the impossible.” 

 “I chose science because of an amazing nun who taught me science in my school in Artane in Dublin,” she says. “At the time there was less than 3% attendance at university. She took us on two buses out on an impromptu trip to UCD when I was about 14. It was at that moment that I decided science was what I would do.” To succeed in her profession, Maguire was faced with challenges, motherhood being just one. 

“The obvious challenges affecting a career like academia was taking multiple time outs on maternity leave,” she says. “It can leave a devastating effect on the expected continuous cycle of funding and publication.” Maguire says another significant challenge was not believing that she could be herself in the science community. She further explains that “working closely with several strong women enabled me to understand that I could and should do this.” 

 For girls seeking science as an option for college, Maguire suggest women and girls give themselves as many opportunities as they can. “Don’t ever take no as a final answer,” she says. “There are plenty of ways to get to where you want to go. No matter what, you will encounter upset, failure, and maybe have your dreams dashed. Dust yourself off and pick yourself back up. In a few months or years, you will see this as an important experience in the bank to make you more resilient for the next time it happens, as it always inevitably will.” 

JoAnne Salmon at the Port of Cork

JoAnn Salmon

The maritime industry can be considered a male-dominated environment. JoAnn Salmon, Safety and Quality Systems Manager at the Port of Cork, and her female colleagues are turning the tables on this perception and are encouraging more women to pursue careers in what they consider to be a rewarding industry.

An engineer by trade, Salmon’s career began despite her father being less agreeable to her choices when deciding to study engineering. “I liked figuring out how things worked,” she says, “but the biggest influence on me becoming an engineer was the fact that my father actively discouraged it, while also encouraging my brothers. Engineering was no profession for his daughter. If I’d been encouraged, I might have been less inclined. The day I graduated, however, he was incredibly proud.” 

Salmon spent eight years on site in the UK and came home to Ireland to build the tunnel. She then found herself in consultancy in the early noughties with responsibility for safety and construction regulations followed by a further diploma in construction health and safety.

As an only girl growing up in a male dominated household, and with less than 10% of her class female, Salmon found she gravitated towards the boys in her class and subsequently veered towards the typical male side of the industry. In some ways, this may have helped in her career as she was the first female employed by a contractor she worked for.

“I went off to work for a medium sized company thinking it would be better to be a little fish in a little pond rather than a little fish in a big pond,” she says. “I was sent to their headquarters for nine months until I threatened to leave because nobody wanted me on their site. I had to kind of demand the opportunity to prove myself everywhere I went in those early days. The rules were different back then. It wasn't hostility, really, it was apprehension.” 

Women are progressing more and more in their fields, but the rules can still remain uneven. Despite this, Salmon encourages all women and girls “to always back herself.” 

Dr Deirdre Ward, Consultant Cardiologist and the Director for the Centre for Cardiac Risk in Younger Persons

Dr Deirdre Ward 

Dr Deirdre Ward has almost 20 years’ experience in Clinical Cardiology with extensive experience in inherited cardiac conditions and sudden cardiac death. As Consultant Cardiologist, she is the Director of the CRY Centre at Tallaght University Hospital, the first full-time dedicated unit for inherited cardiac conditions in Ireland. Ward found cardiology quite interesting in the early part of her career as she found the rapidly changing specialty could make a big difference to people quite quickly.

“I applied for what was actually the first intake of the specialist registrar programme in Ireland, a six-year programme at registrar level with my training in St. James's Hospital and Tallaght Hospital and then got my certificate of completion of specialist training,” she says. 

After this training, Ward found herself pursuing a fellowship opportunity in London as a clinical research fellow in inherited cardiac conditions “It’s a different area of cardiology,” she says. “It’s not quite so fast moving and I spend a lot more time with people. But again, something where you know, you could make quite a difference to people by doing a good job.” 

At the time, there were no facilities for specialist assessments of individuals who might be affected by an inherited cardiac condition in Ireland. Contacted by former colleagues and the founders of the CRY Ireland charity, Ward found herself back in Ireland setting up a service in Tallaght Hospital to assess people with or at risk from inherited cardiac conditions.

Ward recognises that her area is probably considered a more female side of cardiology. “What I'm doing now is very niche,” she says as she feels she had the freedom to choose her path in cardiology and develop a service around her needs as well as her own. “Cardiology is historically quite a male-dominated specialty. There are a lot of procedures, long hours, and exposure to radiation and it typically hasn't attracted a huge female following for various reasons. 

A Women in Cardiology subgroup was established by female trainees who felt they were experiencing challenges that were unique to their gender and other minorities as well within cardiology. There have been some active measures undertaken recently to try and redress that balance.” 

Linda Hynes, partner at Lewis Silkin Ireland.

Linda Hynes

Linda Hynes, a Partner at Lewis Silken, recognises that women continually face a variety of complexities and challenges in the workplace including gender and unconscious bias, difficulties balancing work and family responsibilities, pay inequity and lack of role models in senior and leadership positions. “In addressing these challenges, businesses can create a more equitable and inclusive workplace, which helps them attract and retain talent,” she says. 

“Certainly, an inclusive workplace that allows for a range of ideas and thoughts and a variety of points of view can trigger discussions, or deliver innovative results, as well as provide a wide scope of versatile skills and expertise.”