MARY RYAN takes central place in the ranks of achieving Irish women as the first woman professor appointed in Ireland or Great Britain. She was appointed as professor of romance languages at University College Cork on June 28th, 1910. One hundred years to the day, UCC celebrates her appointment with a reception, hosted by the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, at which former president, Mary Robinson is delivering a special message to honour Mary Ryan’s achievements.
Access to education has been vital for the advancement of women, but positive role-models such as Mary Ryan, inspire people in a way that formal education can never achieve. Her successes were even more remarkable when one realises how hard they were won.
Born in Cork in 1874 into a prosperous commercial family, she enjoyed the advantages of her family’s wealth. Educated at home for a number of years, she completed her studies with the Ursuline sisters at St Angela’s College, Cork. As a student at St Angela’s, Mary Ryan pursued the matriculation course for entry to Queen’s College Cork. However, like many female students at that time, once she matriculated, she completed her university degree outside the walls of the campus. Mary Ryan was raised in a milieu where religious and social convention prevented her from ever stepping foot into a lecture hall.
The rules of the Queen’s Colleges did not preclude women; society and the church discouraged women from attending university. The universities were complicit in this, there was no encouragement for women to attend. If they did, their world was not an easy one and they often met opposition, resentment and ridicule.
However, Mary Ryan, like others of her generation found ways around these restrictions. She studied for her university examinations at St Angela’s School in Cork. The Ursuline sisters, like the Dominicans, Mercy and the Church of Ireland managed Alexandra College, took a stance that if women students could not physically attend the university then the schools brought education to their students by engaging lecturers privately. In Cork, the Ursuline sisters established what was known as a “University top”. This was advanced teaching which allowed students to follow the university curriculum and sit the examinations without attending lectures. In later life, Mary Ryan recalled that the only contact she had with the university as an undergraduate was sitting the BA honours examinations in what she described as the hugely intimidating halls in Earlsfort Terrace Dublin.
From these beginnings, Mary Ryan was awarded her BA degree in 1895 and just 15 years later, in 1910, was appointed professor of romance languages in the newly titled University College, Cork, the first woman to hold the post of professor in Ireland or Great Britain. During her 30 years as professor, Mary Ryan not only taught generations of undergraduate students, but she possessed a formidable reputation for sending her postgraduate students to the Sorbonne. She was awarded a D Litt in 1932 by the National University of Ireland for her published work and in 1935 the French government bestowed on her the coveted Legion of Honour rosette.
Mary Ryan was a woman of her time, unassuming in her achievements and spiritually devout. Obituaries published at the time of her death in 1961 barely touch upon her remarkable accomplishments, but make extensive references to the success of her brothers, all of whom achieved distinction in their professional careers. To all of us who have benefited from Mary Ryan’s remarkable achievements we celebrate the centenary of her appointment with pride and gratitude.
Now, a century after the appointment of the first woman professor in these islands, women represent the majority of students and graduates in higher education in almost all European countries and dominate in education, health and welfare, humanities and the arts. Men still dominate in the sciences, technology and engineering. On June 7th this year, the European Commission presented a new study which examines how gender inequality in education is addressed across EU countries. Regrettably, it shows that gender differences persist in both in choice of study and outcomes. The European Commissioner responsible for education, Androulla Vassiliou, said: “The relationship between gender and educational attainment has changed significantly over the past 50 years and differences now take more complex forms. Schools are overwhelmingly staffed by women, but education systems are managed by men. Most graduates are female and most school drop-outs are boys.
We need to base gender equality policies on these realities.”
Around two-thirds of European countries have gender equality policies in higher education. However, the proportion of women among staff in third-level institutions declines significantly with every step on the career ladder. Addressing these issues through the development and implementation of policies are clearly the next great challenges in gender inequality in higher education today.
Virginia Teehan is director of cultural projects and humanities research support at the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, University College, Cork.