The Chancellor of Trinity and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson is set to chair an all-woman panel at a conference celebrating women in leadership to mark this year’s international women’s day. The conference is being organised by Trinity’s Law Soc and will take place on Thursday in Regent House.
Robinson recently wrote in an Op-Ed in the Indian Daily Newspaper The Hindu, where she said: “Women are the keys to ensuring effective solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing the world today and need representation in all decision making processes.”
The panel includes actress, writer and comedian Tara Flynn; disability and fashion activist and Trinity PhD student Sinéad Burke; Partner in William Fry’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department Lisa Carty; co-founder and CEO of social enterprise FoodCloud Iseult Ward; and Director-General of RTE Dee Forbes.
Panelists will discuss what it is like to be a woman in a leadership position in 21st century Ireland. The organisers say the discussion will examine “the struggles that each woman has had to overcome in order to get to where they are today and society’s’ changing perception of women in leadership”. There will also be an opportunity for members of the audience to put questions to the panellists.
After the panel discussion, all of the panellists will receive the Trinity Praeses Elit Award, an award founded by Mary Robinson, who was the auditor of Trinity’s Law Soc during her time as a student in College. Kate Fahy, the current auditor of the society, said: “The prize is awarded by Law Soc to those who have advanced discourse in their line of work, and who have been a source of inspiration for young people everywhere.” Recent recipients include Cherie Blair, Louise Arbour, Navi Pillay and Alex Salmond.
Mary Robinson, who is also a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and is in her her final year as Trinity’s Chancellor, was most recently on campus last Monday to launch College’s Green Week. Robinson spoke to students at an event hosted by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU). Trinity’s Green Week this year focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
