Gender equality

Women up front: ‘Ambition should be a word that nobody is afraid to use’ - two leading female academics tell their story

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Nadine O’Regan interviews Linda Doyle, provost of TCD, and UCD historian Mary McAuliffe on career highs, ambition and the challenges still facing women in the world of academia

Professor Linda Doyle, Trinity College Dublin’s first female provost: ‘Ambition is not always about running the world. It can have a range of flavours. It should be a word that nobody should be afraid to use.’ Picture: Paul Sharp

‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ It’s a line so commonly used these days that it’s verging on cliche. Yet for women, in Ireland and abroad, it retains the zing of truth. It’s hard to imagine your way into a career sometimes and it’s easy to believe that something can’t be done, simply because you haven’t seen anyone quite like yourself do it before.

This time last year, just ahead of International Women’s Day, ...