IFUT held a special event on 14th March 2019 to commemorate major advances in the area of gender equality for academics over the past year. 

The event was specifically organised to acknowledge the agreements reached with five female lecturers in NUI Galway, two of whom are IFUT members, and to celebrate the successful case for one member at Maynooth University.

IFUT has successfully pursued a number of equality cases in other universities and there is at last a different culture emerging.

The most notable official development was the publication ‘Gender Action Plan 2018 - 2020’ published last November, launched by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and Minister of State at the Department of Education with special responsibility for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell-O’Connor.

Any new national measures should be accompanied by a greater resolve at university level to address gender and age discrimination issues through discourse and normal industrial relations channels, to avoid the need for highly costly legal cases.

The event, while a celebration, also noted that the issue of full equality of opportunity is still an aim to be achieved.