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A ‘proper’ woman? One woman’s story of success and failure in academia

by Pat O'Connor (Author)
©2024 Monographs XII, 238 Pages
Series: Reimagining Ireland, Volume 126

Summary

«A fascinating, well-paced, beautifully written memoir.»
(Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Author and Director, MA in Creative Writing, University of Limerick, Ireland)
«A wonderfully honest, often witty, personal account from someone who experienced discrimination -and challenged it - at every level of academia. So much of what has changed for women in recent decades is chronicled through Pat’s life, research and actions. A tour de force.»
(Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, plant ecologist and feminist activist)
«This book evokes the lived experience of a woman who, out of her time, marshalled the brains, the courage and--I have to say it--the sheer bloody-minded and tireless determination to confront others with one question: ‘why?’. Asking the question came at no small personal cost, but--slowly and surely--it started to prise open some of the seemingly impenetrable male-centric power edifices that exist across academia; openings which now give so many others hope. Don’t be afraid of reading this book about the lifetime of someone who asked why, it may just inspire you to do the same.»
(Paul Walton, Professor of Chemistry, University of York, UK and international gender equality advocate)
This book, written by an insider, explores experiences over a 46-year career in five academic organisations in Ireland and the UK: moving from contract research assistant to full professor and line manager (Dean). Highlighting success and failure, strength and fragility, it challenges ideas about what it is to be a ‘proper' woman. It describes the subtle and relentless processes of devaluation, marginalisation and disempowerment that are often ‘normalised.’ Written in a clear accessible style, with flashes of humour, it asks whose interests are served by taken-for-granted ideas about what it is to be a woman – ideas which deny the reality of many women’s day-to-day experiences. Who wants us to think that all women find identity and satisfaction in housework and child care? Who wants us to think that universities are meritocratic institutions? The book will inspire and entertain all those who have struggled in any male-dominated organisation and wondered if they were the problem.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • Prologue: The fork in the road
  • Chapter 1 Like Dolmens round my childhood … sometimes
  • Chapter 2 Making and not making choices
  • Chapter 3 Coming home
  • Chapter 4 Success?
  • Chapter 5 Ten years in Management
  • Chapter 6 Back to being a full-time professor again …
  • Chapter 7 Reflections
  • Epilogue: Don’t you hate men?
  • Appendix: Pat O’Connor’s Academic Publications
  • Index
  • Series Index

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. The German
National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic
data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Names: O’Connor, Pat, 1950-author.

Title: A ‘proper’ woman?: one woman’s story of success and failure in
academia / Pat O’Connor.

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2024. | Series: Reimagining ireland,
1662- 9094; vol. 126 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023032572 (print) | LCCN 2023032573 (ebook) | ISBN
9781803743059 (paperback) | ISBN 9781803743035 (ebook) | ISBN
9781803743042 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Women in higher education--Social conditions. | Women
college teachers--Social conditions. | Discrimination in higher
education. | Marginality, Social.

Classification: LCC LC1567. O26 2024 (print) | LCC LC1567 (ebook) | DDC
378.0082--dc23/eng/20230815

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023032572

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023032573

Cover image: Butler Claffey Design, 1998.
Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG

About the author

Pat O’Connor is an emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Limerick, and Visiting Professor, Geary Institute, University College Dublin. She was the first woman full Professor of Sociology in Ireland; and the first full female Professor and faculty Dean in the University of Limerick. She has published 120 academic publications including eight books.

About the book

‘A fascinating, well-paced, beautifully written memoir.’

– Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Author and Director, MA in Creative Writing,
University of Limerick, Ireland

‘A wonderfully honest, often witty, personal account from someone who experienced discrimination -and challenged it - at every level of academia. So much of what has changed for women in recent decades is chronicled through Pat’s life, research and actions. A tour de force.’

– Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, plant ecologist and feminist activist

‘This book evokes the lived experience of a woman who, out of her time, marshalled the brains, the courage and--I have to say it--the sheer bloody-minded and tireless determination to confront others with one question: ‘why?’. Asking the question came at no small personal cost, but--slowly and surely--it started to prise open some of the seemingly impenetrable male-centric power edifices that exist across academia; openings which now give so many others hope. Don’t be afraid of reading this book about the lifetime of someone who asked why, it may just inspire you to do the same.’

– Paul Walton, Professor of Chemistry, University of York,
UK and international gender equality advocate

This book, written by an insider, explores experiences over a 46-year career in five academic organisations in Ireland and the UK: moving from contract research assistant to full professor and line manager (Dean). Highlighting success and failure, strength and fragility, it challenges ideas about what it is to be a ‘proper’ woman. It describes the subtle and relentless processes of devaluation, marginalisation and disempowerment that are often ‘normalised.’ Written in a clear accessible style, with flashes of humour, it asks whose interests are served by taken-for-granted ideas about what it is to be a woman – ideas which deny the reality of many women’s day-to-day experiences. Who wants us to think that all women find identity and satisfaction in housework and child care? Who wants us to think that universities are meritocratic institutions? The book will inspire and entertain all those who have struggled in any male-dominated organisation and wondered if they were the problem.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my sister, Stella Reeves, who has been a steadfast support to me since we were children, particularly since the death of our parents forty years ago. I am grateful for her many kindnesses, including tolerating me publishing this memoir. My nieces, Emma, Suzanne, Mags, Claire and Lizzie in their very different ways have enriched my life, as have their children: Eoin, Conor, Harry, Ciara, Isabel, Leo, Jeff, Bobby, Alannah, Maia, Clara, Robyn, Art, Fia, Blaise and Oscar. Friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and strangers have shown me many kindnesses throughout my life and these have enabled me to maintain that kind of naive optimism which has been so important in sustaining me.

The original impetus to write this memoir came indirectly from my brother-in-law, Tommy Reeves who forwarded the link to Silver Threads, an online memoir writing group sent to him by his daughter/my niece Claire. I am grateful to them for this and to Tommy for his work on my mother's family history (which I draw on in Chapter 1). Cathy Fowley, the co-ordinator of Silver Threads and the other members of that group provided early encouragement and ideas. Miranda (Mo) Doyle, the leader of the Faber memoir writing course, and the other participants on that course provided helpful insights and suggestions. Finally, I benefitted from City University and Curtis Brown memoir writing courses as well as from the Writing and Meditation sessions run by Emer Philbin Bowman.

Stella Reeves, Julia Brannen, Deirdre O’Toole, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Eugene O’Brien, Ellen Hazelkorn and Tom Lodge read earlier drafts of the manuscript and I am grateful to them for their encouraging comments and suggestions. Brian Langan and Eamon Maher provided editorial assistance and I appreciated this. Tony Mason, the Commissioning editor for Peter Lang responded to the manuscript with heart-warming speed and alacrity and I thank him for that.

There is some limited overlap in content between this memoir and the chapter on ‘A Standard Career?’ in Generation and Gender in Academia, edited by B. Bagilhole and K. White, published by Palgrave Macmillan and I am happy to refer to that publication. The sub-section on Gender Equality in the Health Services in Chapter 4 draws on some of the material in the 1996 Economic and Social Review article and I am grateful for permission to draw on it. The academic article: ‘An Autoethnographic Account of a Pragmatic Inclusionary Strategy and Tactics as a Form of Feminist Activism’, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (2019), 38 (8): 825–40 deals with a part of my work life, but is obviously very different to this memoir.

The evocative image on the cover was created by Niall Toolan for Butler Claffey Design who used it for my book, Emerging Voices: Women in Contemporary Irish Society, published by the Institute of Public Administration, Dublin in 1998. Catherine Griffin helpfully suggested that I re-use it. That was facilitated by Gerry Butler, Signal Design, and I very much appreciated that.

This then is my story. There are particularities of time and location. The critical moments in my life will be different from many others. Other women may be less naive than I or more adept at learning the lessons of life. But the similarities are there.

Details

Pages
XII, 238
Publication Year
2024
ISBN (PDF)
9781803743035
ISBN (ePUB)
9781803743042
ISBN (Softcover)
9781803743059
DOI
10.3726/b21197
Language
English
Publication date
2023 (December)
Keywords
memoir higher education woman Ireland discrimination devaluation marginalization disempowerment overnight success failure a ‘proper’ woman; choices power sponsorship building a house sailing holistic therapies mental health ballroom dancing
Published
Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2024. XII, 238 pp.

Biographical notes

Pat O'Connor (Author)

Pat O’Connor is an emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Limerick, and Visiting Professor, Geary Institute, University College Dublin. She was the first woman full Professor of Sociology in Ireland; and the first full female Professor and faculty Dean in the University of Limerick. She has published 120 academic publications including eight books.

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Title: A ‘proper’ woman? One woman’s story of success and failure in academia