Trinity College Dublin launches centre for gender equality and leadership

13 Oct 2017

Forging the way in the field of gender equality, Trinity College Dublin officially launched The Trinity Centre for Gender Equality and Leadership (TCGEL) this week in a bid to “ensure a diverse, innovative and productive academic community of global significance.”

Speaking at TCGEL’s launch, chancellor of the college, Dr Mary Robinson, stated that she was “delighted” to be involved.

“Its Vision is of an inclusive and innovative university community in which people of all genders participate at all levels, are enabled to reach their full potential, and are recognised equally for their diverse contributions,” she said, as reported by Trinity News.

The new centre expands on its predecessor organisation, Women in Science and Engineering Research (WiSER) to include all academic disciplines and support areas in Trinity.

Pleased to introduce Chancellor Mary Robinson for yesterday’s launch of TCGEL @TCDGenderEq @SAGE_GEquality https://t.co/VjYbLtp4c1 pic.twitter.com/9AydgaNNyX

— Patrick Prendergast (@pjprendergast) October 12, 2017

While the under-representation of women in STEM subject areas has been well documented, TCGEL goes further to support women in all disciplines of study and hopes to become a national leader in women empowerment.

It does this by encouraging the development of a learning and working environment that highlights both equality and good practise.

In Ireland, Trinity is already seeing a significant increase in the number of women occupying senior officer positions and an increase in the number of female lecturers, which has doubled from 13 percent of the staff in 2006 to 26 percent last year. 14 percent of the staff in the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science are women. But the college hopes to better this.

At the launch, director of TCGEL Professor Eileen Drew stressed that gender equality is not for women alone, but for the good of all.

“The underlying premise is that gender equality is not just for women – everyone benefits. TCGEL’s aims, therefore, are not driven by a desire to ‘fix the numbers’ or ‘fix the women’ but instead by a drive to change and improve the culture for everyone working or studying in higher education institutions.”

More power to you Trinity!