Micheline Sheehy Skeffington

Micheline Sheehy Skeffington (born 1953) is an Irish botanist and equity advocate. Elected President of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland in November 2022, she was the third woman and second Irish person to hold the position since the Society's founding in 1836.

Life
Micheline Sheehy Skeffington was born in 1953, the daughter of Andrée and Owen Sheehy-Skeffington, and the granddaughter of Francis and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington.

Sheehy Skeffington is a plant ecologist, with an interest in terrestrial ecosystems. She conducted research on sustainable farming for conservation, with special focus on grassland management for conservation. She was appointed to The Heritage Council 1995–2000, and chaired the Council Wildlife Committee 1999–2000. She worked at the University of Galway for 34 years, joining in 1980 as a lecturer. In 1984, with Peter Wyse Jackson, she published The Flora of Inner Dublin.

In 2014, Sheehy Skeffington won a landmark Equality Tribunal case against the university after it was found she lost out on a promotion on the basis of her gender. She told The Irish Times that her "family history of trying to address injustice was part of the reason" she took the case:"I believed I was representing discrimination against women in general. I have it in the genes. If I see an injustice I have to do something about it."The university was ordered to promote Sheehy Skeffington to senior lecturer from July 2009 (the year in which she was denied the promotion on which the case was based), to pay the salary difference in full, and to award her €70,000. They were also ordered to review their policies and procedures. The case was the first successful win of its kind in Ireland or the UK.

Sheehy Skeffington took early retirement from the University of Galway in September 2014.

Sheehy Skeffington donated the €70,000 award to five other women academics who were also passed over for promotion, beginning "Micheline’s Three Conditions Campaign", aiming to secure their promotions. From 2018, with journalist Rose Foley, she wrote the story of the campaign in Micheline’s Three Conditions: How We Fought Gender Inequality at Galway’s University and Won.