Women's education associations: the role of the Central Association of Irish Schoolmistresses and the Woman's Education Association, Boston in advancing the cause for women's admission to Trinity College Dublin and Harvard University

Examining the historiography of women’s education, the issue which dominates is understandably that of access. Access, or lack thereof, is a transnational construct which forms an over-arching framework through which the issue of historical gender equality in higher education can be interpreted and interrogated. Each of the seminal texts which examines the historiography of women’s higher education uses access as a lens. While it is important to examine access in the historiography of women’s education, a focus on access can obscure an interrogation of agency and particularly the role of social and intellectual networks in advancing key strategic objectives such as access. Against the backdrop of the higher education movements in both Ireland and the United States, this article examines the role of the Central Association of Irish Schoolmistresses (CAISM) in securing access for women to Trinity College Dublin and the concomitant role of the Woman’s Education Association, Boston (WEA) in securing Harvard degrees for women. Chronicling the activities of the associations, both compensatory and innovative, it interrogates how the women at the centre of the associations straddled a conservative/progressive agenda in order to incrementally open up the privileges of a patriarchal space to women.Fellowship from the Massachusetts Historical Society, Bosto

The path to professorship: reflections from women professors in Ireland

The under-representation of women in senior echelons of the academy is well-documented internationally. In the Irish context, the issue of gender equality has reached the active policy agenda relatively recently, largely triggered by a number of high profile lawsuits and the subsequent setting up of an expert review panel and a gender equality taskforce, both issuing landmark reports [HEA 2016. National Review of Gender Inequality in Irish Higher Education Institutions. http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/04/hea_review_of_gender_equality_in_irish_higher_education.pdf; HEA 2018. Higher Education Institutional Staff Profiles by Gender. July. http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2018/01/Higher-Education-Institutional-Staff-Profiles-by-Gender-2018.pdf]. Data on the barriers women face moving through the entrepreneurial university have slowly emerged, with now a more sophisticated understanding of the gendered nature and impact of neoliberal values and managerialist practices. But what of those women who do make it to professoriate level? What do they identify as the key enablers which facilitated their progression? Part of a national study of women professors in Ireland, in which 21 women, three in each of the seven universities nationally were interviewed, this article is based on the narratives of 10 women located in faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities, all of whom had made strategic choices not to engage in leadership/management roles. Three key themes were generated during the analysis of their testimony: the importance of academic mentors, sponsors and networks which helped position them for advancement; the value these women placed on research rather than management/leadership tracks; and the strategies they employed in order to reach the level of full professor.Irish Research Counci

Engendering the Historiography of the Professoriate: Reflections on the Role and Legacy of Professor Mary Hayden, (1862–1942)

Through the lens of nineteenth-century Irish society and through an interrogation of the diaries of one of the first women professors appointed to the National University of Ireland, this article traces the entry of women into the professoriate in Ireland. The aim of the paper is to extend the map of the international research agenda which speaks to a historiographical deficit in the area of women and the professoriate, interrogating the complex role that the early women professors played in a male hegemonic world. Specifically, the article examines the role and legacy of Professor Mary Hayden (1862–1942), historian and women’s rights activist

Challenging the dominant Church hegemony in times of risk and promise: Carysfort women resist

Historically, patriarchy has been as dominant in education in Ireland as elsewhere. In the Irish context, it was promoted through the male-dominated Catholic Church, which controlled either directly or indirectly the vast majority of education institutions in the country. This dominant hegemony was most powerful during the period post-Independence, achieved in 1922, and up until the 1960s. By the 1960s, however, Irish society had begun a process of self-reflection and modernisation triggered by exposure to international ideas, the Second Vatican Council, the democratisation of education and radical changes in economic policy. This article focuses on one manifestation of this process, namely a strike initiated by female students at a female-run teacher training college in Dublin in demand of a greater voice in the nature of the curriculum taught and in the governance of the college. However, these women were protesting not against the male hegemony, rather against the women religious who perpetrated this hegemony. The focus of this study is thus on patriarchy perpetuated by women on women

An early in-service intervention in Irish mid-nineteenth century elementary education

The political and social rationale for the establishment of a national system of education in nineteenth-century Ireland has been the focus of considerable attention by scholars. Less attention has, however, been paid to teacher quality and school effectiveness within that system. Various efforts were made over the course of the century to address the issues of teacher quality and school effectiveness. The paid monitor was introduced in the early 1840s to convent and ordinary national schools, with paid pupil–teacher programmes recognised in the larger convent and national schools during the same period. A more strategic effort was made to address the issue of teacher quality with the introduction of an in-service type intervention from the mid-1850s to provide a school-based programme for teachers and managers in effective school organisation. Examining this intervention is the purpose of this paper: what was its rationale and purpose, how was it planned and implemented; what was its impact and what is its historical legacy

Irish educational policy in the 1960s: a decade of transformation

A decade of transformation that emerged following a period of inertia and insularity in Irish education, the 1960s is widely regarded by scholars as representing a paradigm shift in education policy. Marked by a more interventionist, strategic policy approach, this period resulted in significant democratisation of education, particularly at post-primary level. Based on an analysis of key primary sources, many of which are here examined for the first time, this article argues that this step change in policy, the impact of which should not be underestimated, would not have been possible without the deep-seated commitment of a number of politicians and policy advisers committed to the democratisation of post-primary education

Irish education and the legacy of O’Connell

In 1831, the British Government decided to become directly involved in the provision of elementary education in Ireland, a country over which it then had jurisdiction. By European standards of the time this was a highly unusual step. A number of scholars have interrogated the factors that led to this outcome as well as the role played by various individuals. Daniel O’Connell’s activities, at this time, have been described as relatively limited, which appears incongruous given that he is considered the most powerful Irish politician of this era and was then at the height of his powers. It is the central contention of this article that O’Connell was, in fact, intimately involved in bringing about a national system of elementary education. Of more lasting significance is the manner in which he defined the role of the politician vis-à-vis the Church authorities in educational policy-making. In this regard he established a pattern that remained unchanged for over a century and indeed, it could be argued, largely persists to this day

‘I am amazed at how easily we accepted it’: the marriage ban, teaching and ideologies of womanhood in post-Independence Ireland

This article examines the perspectives of 14 primary school teachers subjected to a marriage ban in Ireland between 1932 and 1958. This oral history study provides a unique platform to examine the construction and articulation of these women’s historical memories. Interrogating their perspectives on the marriage ban provides an important window into the social and cultural world in which they lived, the norms and dominant values they encountered, and the ways in which they negotiated their own individual consciousness within a specific cultural framework. Specifically, the analysis of these women’s testimony generates significant insights into the gendering of teaching as a suitable profession for women in early twentieth-century Ireland; how gender shaped social and cultural roles; Church control over women’s training and employment; and the use of policy to deepen women’s social and economic subordination

The Changing Landscape - State Policy - Making, Public service and teacher education in Ireland, 1950-1980

Radical economic policy change from the 1950s had major implications for Irish education which had traditionally drawn its values and orientation from Catholicism and cultural nationalism. While change to the economicallyrelated administrative structures were bold and innovative, responses in the sphere of education were less so. This article outlines the change and forms of administrative response in teacher education and the implications for the administration of teacher in-service professional development

Investigating the potential of cultural-historical activity theory for studying specific transitions in the history of education

In recent years, and particularly with the emergence of cultural history, historians of education have begun to adopt a wide variety of theoretical approaches to their scholarship. Notwithstanding this, cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) remains underutilised in the field of history of education, despite being employed widely in other domains of education research. This paper illustrates the way in which CHAT offers a valuable framework for identifying and illuminating broad sweeps of change in education at local, national, and international levels, specifically by interrogating a strike initiated by female students in a religious-run teacher training college in Ireland in the 1970s. What is particularly remarkable about that strike is that these women activists were protesting at a time when Irish society was at its most conservative, when Church control was at its zenith, and when women’s rights were most restricted. Yet, these women activists were not rising up against the male dominant hegemony. Rather, they were rising up against the female religious managers of the college. Our use of CHAT, thus, focused on patriarchy perpetuated by women on women