8 March 2007 Lincoln University marks International Women's Day

 

Today, Thursday 8th March, is International Women's Day and the theme worldwide this year is “women in decision-making”.

On the Lincoln University campus, the day is being marked with a social gathering at which a number of women speakers from among the staff will tell of their experiences and successes as they have progressed through their careers.

“Decision-making is nothing new for women,” says Lincoln University Senior Lecturer in Parks and Recreation Kay Booth, who will be one of the speakers.

“We’ve always done it. It’s just that the contexts have broadened and women have become influential in a greater number of ways.”

In addition to her Lincoln University roles as a teacher and researcher, Kay also serves as a Ministerial appointee on two major national bodies – the New Zealand Conservation Authority and the New Zealand Geographic Board.

Kay’s ability to contribute to the decision-making of these two groups can lead to results in all sorts of ways. The Conservation Authority advises the Department of Conservation and has statutory responsibility for protected area management plans and national park policy. Its mission is no less than ensuring that the richness of New Zealand’s natural and cultural heritage is valued, restored, maintained and cared for by all for the enhancement of the environment and our quality of life.

“It’s a big field of responsibility,” she says, “but talking about the ‘richness of our natural and cultural heritage’ takes you to the heart of being a New Zealander and to be able to make a contribution at that level is a great privilege and very satisfying.”

Kay’s role with the New Zealand Geographic Board evokes similar feelings of privilege and satisfaction for among the Board’s responsibilities is the naming of places and, connected with this, investigating and determining the priority of discovery; collecting original Māori place names for recording on official maps; and investigating any proposed alterations to place names.

The ranks of Lincoln University’s decision-making academic women also include Professor of Plant Pathology Alison Stewart, who joined the staff in 1994 and in 1999 became the University’s first woman professor.

Scots-born and educated, Professor Stewart subsequently became leader of the University’s then Microbial and Plant Sciences Group and further promotion followed when she was appointed foundation Director of Lincoln’s Bio-Protection and Ecology Division.

From its start in 2002 she has headed the Lincoln University-based National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies. This Centre of Research Excellence is one of only seven in the country and the only one in the South Island.

As a multi-million dollar operation the Centre involves a lot of serious stewardship and decision-making.

Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Sheelagh Matear, who has responsibility for academic processes on the campus, is in the top echelon of Lincoln women too. She welcomed her appointment in 2004 as an opportunity to pursue a “long-standing interest in senior level university leadership”.

Professor Matear, who completed her PhD at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, then worked at the University of Arizona in the United States, will be another of the speakers at Lincoln University’s International Women’s Day function.

She says there needs to be an expectation and acceptance in organisations that women can move into senior management roles and that they can advance to them.

Other top decision-making academic women at Lincoln University include Dr Stefanie Rixecker, Director of the Environment, Society and Design Division, who manages nearly 100 staff, 180 postgraduate students and seven undergraduate programmes, and Associate Professor Sandhya Samarasinghe who is leader of the University’s Natural Resources Engineering Group.

Associate Professor Samarasinghe’s recent book, Neural networks for pattern recognition in scientific data: An exploratory introduction for applied scientists, is currently on the best-selling list of top international science publisher CRC Press, New York.

Professor Caroline Saunders, the Director of Lincoln University’s oldest established existing research group, the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, is another of Lincoln University’s top academic women. The English-born Professor of Trade and Environmental Economics has recently made an international impact with her “food miles” research.

Lincoln University’s Director International, Irish-Australian Melanie O’Toole, sums up International Women’s Day as an annual occasion for acknowledging all the past and present contributions made by women worldwide.

Melanie, who is a board member of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, says that the day is also a time of reflection and action to address the injustices experienced by many women and children who in many parts of the world still don’t have access to satisfactory education, health systems, accessible and affordable childcare and flexible and meaningful employment.

 

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand