Are we asking the right questions about gender equality in higher education? 

Maggie Cusack, President of Munster Technological University.

In Ireland for the first time, after 429 years, the male dominance of the Presidency of Irish public universities has been shattered. Women have been appointed to head up four of the 10 public universities (University of Limerick — Prof Kerstin Mey; Munster Technological University, Prof Maggie Cusack; Maynooth University, Prof Eeva Leoinen; and one of the three women in contention in Trinity College Dublin).

So 40% of the heads of universities in Ireland will be women as compared with an EU average of 14%. This will help break the equation between masculinity and power — but will these women be able to make a difference to women’s under-representation at professorial level?