The Irish minister for education has unveiled plans for twenty female-only professorships as part of the government’s strategy to tackle gender discrimination in the sector.

Universities in Australia and the Netherlands have in the past established female-only lecturing posts but this is the first time a government has introduced legislation to cover the entire tertiary or third-level education area.

Mary Mitchell-O’Connor, the minister for state at the Department of Education, said the recruitment process for the twenty professorships is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks and it is expected that the successful applicants will be in place for the academic year starting next September.

The recruitment will be targeted in the areas of science, technology and engineering where there is currently significant under-representation of female lecturers.

The initiative was originally announced in 2018, but the Irish government had to wait for legal clearance. It is understood the Irish Attorney General approved the strategy in the past few weeks.

It emerged last year that the Department of Public Expenditure, which is funding the project, raised concerns about whether it was compatible with EU law. Positive action is lawful, whereas positive discrimination is not. Officials claimed that plans for female-only professorships could be interpreted as positive discrimination.