Women to blame for lack of promotion

Fewer than one in five senior management posts in Irish public universities is held by women because they lack ambition and political skills, and their lifestyles are "unhelpful", a study has found, reports Catherine Shanahan for the Irish Examiner.

University of Limerick sociology professor Pat O'Connor surveyed 34 senior managers in Irish universities and found most of them believed women were the source of this "problem" and the focus must be on "fixing the women". This was the view shared by both men and women who took part in the survey, the findings of which are contained in O'Connor's latest book, Management and Gender in Irish Education.

"As they saw it, women lacked career ambition; they were poor at marketing themselves, they lacked political skills, and had lifestyles that were unhelpful," she said. The women themselves felt their male colleagues viewed them in stereotypical fashion: as challenging, questioning, formidable, awkward, and frightening.
Full report on the Irish Examiner site