The University of Dundee has a women problem.
Professor Pamela Gillies did not mince words in the final report of her independent investigation into what went wrong.
“Female members of staff in particular reported being spoken over, sidelined, called obstructive in public if they attempted to be heard and there were reports that the university policy on dignity and fairness was not upheld on a number of instances,” the report said.
The sidelining of women was borne out further in the former Vice Principal (International) Baroness Wendy Alexander’s evidence to the Scottish Parliament Education Committee.
In a written statement released last week, she described her marginalisation as the most senior woman in the university by the former Principal Vice Principal and Chief Operating Officer, and their attempts to offer her overseas trips and a payoff, that to her credit she refused.
These revelations were shocking but not surprising to us.
In our view this culture of sexism runs deeper than the sidelining of women speaking up and out and persists beyond the ignominious end of Iain Gillespie’s tenure as Principal of the university.
As two senior women academics at the University of Dundee, we are facing our own removal due to the ongoing compulsory redundancy consultations in two research groups: the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, and Assistive Technology, in which we are respectively based.
If our research groups are closed, four out of the meagre six women professors in the School of Science and Engineering will lose their jobs. No male professors are targeted.
Closing the groups and making us redundant raises serious questions about the university’s commitment to gender equality, especially in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) disciplines.
The School of Science and Engineering already has the lowest proportion of female employees across the university’s academic schools, at 36%, according to the university’s own 2025 staff diversity report.
This reflects the broader STEM gender problem in this country.
In Scotland, women and girls are underrepresented in STEM education and this follows through into the labour market.
The Scottish Government has committed to tackling this inequality through initiatives such as its STEM education and training strategy and the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls.
‘Dundee University’s commitment to gender equality is failing’
The Scottish Government (via the Scottish Funding Council) has given the University of Dundee emergency funds to keep the institution afloat, and will likely have to provide further funding.
But how can the Scottish Government’s own STEM equality goals be achieved if the Scottish Government allows the University of Dundee to make its only female research professors in Science and Engineering redundant?
The University of Dundee also claims to be committed to gender equality throughout the institution. As well as the revelations from the Gillies report and Baroness Alexander’s evidence, the university’s own data shows that this commitment is mere words rather than actions.
There is still a gender pay gap of 14.8% in favour of men, which has grown since 2022.
This is despite the university’s equality, diversity ,and inclusion strategy 2024-2027 recognising the need for inclusivity to achieve true academic excellence.
It has, as one of its KPIs, the improvement of “workforce diversity”.
One target for achieving this KPI is the attainment of a gender balance in the professoriate, meaning 40% women.
These pronouncements ring hollow now that the university seems intent upon sacking four female professors (two thirds of the female professoriate in science and engineering), leaving only two women alongside 17 male professors in the school – entailing that the remaining women represent only just over 10%.
Who will be the role models for women and girls if we are fired? What message does this send to the wider community whose interests our work aims to serve, and future generations of women and girls in STEM?
Is the university’s new management happy to perpetuate this culture of sexism by removing yet more women leaders? If the University of Dundee and the Scottish Government are serious about gender equality, including in STEM, the redundancy proceedings in Assistive Technology and the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science must be stopped otherwise the culture of sexism will persist.
Professor Angela Daly is chair of law and technology at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, School of Science and Engineering, while Professor Annalu Waller is chair of human communication technologies
in computing at the School of Science and Engineering.
Conversation