The inside story of how pioneering feminist and activist Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington won her gender inequality case against the University of Galway is contained in a new book on the saga, out this week.
After years of relentless and determined action, Dr Sheehy Skeffington, a pioneering feminist, plant ecologist, and activist, joined forces with journalist Rose Foley to publish Micheline’s Three Conditions: How We Fought Gender Inequality at Galway’s University and Won.
Rose Foley is an accomplished writer and editor with a career spanning both US and Irish newspapers, including The Boston Globe, where she helped edit the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning series on the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.
Dr Sheehy Skeffington’s journey towards justice was anything but easy. First, she fought a historic gender discrimination case for lack of promotion, marking the first successful win of its kind in Ireland or the UK.
Following her victory, she donated her €70,000 award to five other women who had also been passed over in the promotion round, thus kickstarting the ‘Micheline’s Three Conditions Campaign’. This four-year epic struggle, filled with twists and turns, aimed to secure promotions for the five deserving women, culminating in a triumphant and uplifting finale.
Reviewing the book, local TD Catherine Connolly said it is ‘brimming with integrity and interlaced with laugh-out-loud humour,’ while journalist and author Susan McKay said it is a “brilliant and unputdownable book about a brilliant and unputdownable woman, a handbook for how to start your own rebellion and win it, and a higher education in the uses of fury, principles, solidarity, and good T-shirts.’
Micheline’s Three Conditions: How We Fought Gender Inequality at Galway’s University and Won chronicles her achievements and offers an invaluable blueprint for those seeking similar justice.
Through extensive research, including interviews and archival materials, Rose Foley and Micheline Sheehy Skeffington have created a compelling narrative that candidly explores the highs and lows of their incredible journey.
Unlike traditional accounts, the book provides a very readable story illustrated throughout with posters, photos, tweets, and news clippings. It avoids burdensome footnotes, instead opting for chapter notes at the end to provide additional details, sources, and references for the curious reader.
Micheline’s Three Conditions: How We Fought Gender Inequality at Galway’s University and Won serves as an important testament to the power of persistence and collective action in the face of injustice.
Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington is granddaughter of prominent feminist, socialist, nationalist, and pacifist figures Hanna and Francis Sheehy Skeffington, and through her life, she carried forward their legacy of justice.
Her unwavering dedication to gender equality, rooted in her family’s legacy of activism, has paved the way for meaningful change in higher education.
Currently serving as the President of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, she is only the third woman to hold this title since its establishment in 1836.
