Updated: 20 February 2025
International Women's Day 2025 #Accelerate Action
Marked annually on 8 March, International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
International Women's Day 2025 theme: Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
Scroll down to find information about events, initiatives and training across UCD campuses and our International Women’s Day Training and Support Bundle.
Message from Prof Aoife Ahern, Vice President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
I am delighted to see so many events to mark International Women's Day. This year, the campaign for IWD is "Accelerate Action" - this theme aligns to the University's strategic approach in partnership with Colleges, Schools and Professional Units to advance equity and inclusion for women and to remove systemic barriers that continue to face women in their careers and personal lives. UCD continues to raise the profile of gender equality and mainstream gender equality. This is demonstrated through UCD's institutional Silver Athena Swan award and our Bronze and Silver College and School Athena Swan awards. Celebrating IWD sends a message to our students that UCD is committed to the value of fostering inclusion and achieving tangible and sustainable change. This is something we continue to strive for through UCD's Gender Equality Action Plan 2024-2029 in the University and where I hope we can support all colleagues and students in the careers and education they are pursuing here.
Learn more about UCD's commitment to Gender Equality: UCD Gender Equality Action Plan 2024-2029.
Events, training and initiatives across the University
Tuesday 4 March: UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences
Diversity and Inclusion in Women’s Health.
TIME: Events will run from 11.30am - 3.30pm
LOCATION: Presentations will be in the Charles Institute Seminar room and livestreamed for those who cannot make it to UCD Belfield.
Events will run from 11.30am - 3.30pm
Speakers: Dr Brid Shanahan, Assistant Prof Olayinka Aremu. Ms Marion Maher, Prof Amanda McCann, Ms Elaine Quinn.
11.45am - 12.15pm
Dr Brid Shanahan
GP at Summerhill Family Practice in Dublin 1
Clinical Lead for Deep End Ireland
Diversity and Inclusion in Women’s Health in General Practice
My talk will introduce key concepts of social inclusion and explore specific challenges that disproportionately affect women living in deprivation. By highlighting these issues, I aim to increase awareness among healthcare staff working in these communities, helping them better understand and support their patients.
12.30pm - 1.00pm
Assistant Prof Olayinka Aremu
Doctoral Researcher Assistant Professor at the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Systems
Bridging Health Inequities: Addressing Gaps in Women’s Healthcare for Diverse Communities
Women from diverse ethnic, socio-economic, and migrant backgrounds face significant disparities in healthcare access and outcomes, affecting areas like maternal health, chronic diseases, and mental well-being. Culturally competent care plays a crucial role in bridging these gaps by fostering trust, improving communication, and ensuring that healthcare services are inclusive and responsive to diverse needs. Through real-world initiatives, policy reforms, and community-driven efforts, we can drive meaningful change. This talk will explore these health inequities, the power of culturally aware care, and actionable strategies to create a more equitable healthcare system for all women.
2.00pm - 2.30pm
Ms Marion Maher
Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Diagnostic Imaging
Diversity in Fertility: Understanding Ireland’s Evolving Patient Cohort
Diversity in the patient population attending fertility services in Ireland has increased significantly due to evolving societal norms, immigration, and advancements in reproductive technology. Historically, fertility treatments were primarily accessed by heterosexual couples; however, modern services now cater to a broader demographic, including single individuals, same-sex couples, and people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This talk will explore the advancements in service responses to this evolving cohort and some of the challenges that remain.
2.45pm - 3.15pm
Prof Amanda McCann
UCD Senior Conway Fellow/PI, UCD Conway Institute.
Chair Patient Voice in Cancer Research (PVCR)
Ms Elaine Quinn
Institute Manager (Communications & Education) in UCD Conway Institute
‘Cut from the Same Cloth’; Engaging women from minority communities in health research
Health research can improve the patients’ lives. It is important to build trust and new connections so that diverse voices are heard and represented in research.
Cut from the Same Cloth is an art/science collaboration with tapestry weaver, Lorna Donlon. The project funded by Research Ireland is attempting to find common ground in an equitable, open and transparent way with women and female adolescents from minority communities in Ireland.
Cloth plays a role in family traditions and cultural customs. We heard stories from 164 women and girls from 4 continents of personal connections to pieces of cloth. Twenty-five researchers shared the stories behind the patterns seen when working with cells inside the body.
Inspired by these stories of family, traditions, beliefs, love, loss, challenging times, darkness and ill health, Lorna Donlon is weaving a tapestry and curating an exhibition that will tour nationwide from April 2025. As people, we are not so different. We are all ‘cut from the same cloth’.
Events, training and initiatives across the University
Tuesday, 4th March: UCD Women+ in STEM Society
Location: Fitzgerald Chamber, UCD Student Centre.
Time: 1-3pm (free lunch at 2pm!).
RSVP link here: (opens in a new window)https://forms.gle/J4x1Lwq227PDwT31A
The UCD Women+ in STEM Society will be hosting a special event to celebrate International Women's Day. We've invited Anna Doyle from the Leinster Rugby Women's Team to UCD to share her story with members and the wider UCD community!
Anna graduated from UCD with a M.Sc. Environmental Science and a B.Sc. Environmental Science and Technology from DCU. She currently works as an Inspector at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a member of the Leinster Rugby Women's Team and a previous member of the Irish Women’s Rugby 7’s team for 4 years. Based on the IWD 2025 theme '#AccelerateAction', this event will give an insight into how Anna has broken boundaries in both STEM and sport! This event has been made possible through partnership with BearingPoint.
College of Social Sciences and Law: Wednesday, 5 March, 11:00am, D101 Newman
Café Conversations
All colleagues are invited to join our College celebration. A short fireside chat, moderated by Prof Niamh Moore-Cherry, will showcase and share the career & life experiences of some female colleagues. Join us for coffee, tea, cupcakes and conversations.
Supriya Garikipati, School of Politics and International Relation
Helen Kenny, School of Economics
Aphra Kerr, School of Information and Communication Studies
Chair: Niamh Moore-Cherry, Vice Principal, CoSSL
College of Social Sciences and Law: Thursday, 6 March at 4:00 pm, UCD Global Lounge
Her Journey, Our Inspiration: UCD Female Alumni Meet Our Students
UCD female alumni return to campus to share their journeys, experiences, and insights with students and our university community. This engaging conversation with women from different backgrounds across diverse fields is an opportunity to connect, learn, and celebrate women worldwide. All welcome. Join us for pizza and refreshments.
Alumni
Claudia Walsh, Employee Relations Workplace Investigator
Tarisai May Chidawanyika, Senior Associate at Matheson, LLP
Oyinkan Adebimpe, Policy Manager at Google
Chair: Miranda Bauer, President UCD Students’ Union
Thursday 6th March: Earth Institute International Women's Day Research Celebration
Location: Room Q118 Quinn School of Business
Time: 15.00 - 16.30
(opens in a new window)Register here
Full agenda will follow on the Earth Institute website.
UCD Earth Institute is delighted to mark International Women’s Day with a celebration of UCD gender dimensions in research case studies. Research funding agencies require all proposals to identify gender dimensions in the research content. This is a challenge to researchers across all disciplines. The event will be opened by Professor Orla Feely, UCD President, followed by a short talk by Dr Marion Boland, Head of Research Policy at Research Ireland on the gender dimension of research content: a Research Ireland funding and policy context. We will then highlight sample UCD cases from UCD researchers, and invite all researchers to consider potential directions to uncover gender dimensions of their own research.
Thursday 6th March: - UCD Foundation
Location: UCD Club
Time: 11am
Book Launch: “100 Years of Empowering Women, Celebrating the Centenary of the Irish Federation of University Women". The event will be opened by Professor Orla Feely, UCD President,
Coffee mornings
- Tuesday, 4 March: UCD Smurfit Business School, 11am
- Friday, 7 March: UCD School of Physics, 11am, Beech Hill (Physics Common Room)
International Women’s Day Training and Support Bundle
EDI are delighted to offer two sessions tailored for women in academia and research and women in leadership and management to mark International Women's Day 2025. Some places are still available, register on the EDI Training and Events Calendar.
Women and Leadership - Don’t Let Imposter Feelings Hold you Back
The call for women to step into positions of seniority and leadership is widespread. Many women are aware that unconscious bias is still subtly affecting their career progression and that feelings of not being good enough – what we often describe as Imposter Syndrome feelings – stop them volunteering or going for positions of leadership. If not addressed the Imposter Syndrome can cause individuals to experience significant stress, anxiety and fear. It can drive them to burn-out or inhibit them from achieving their full potential, prevent them from making valuable contributions to projects or meetings and deprive an organisation from seeing the very best that their staff can give.
The workshops will explore:
- What is Imposter Syndrome
- Who might experience imposter feelings and why
- Solutions - Ways to move forward
- How to manage feelings around success and failure
- How to manage our Inner Critic
- Powerful female archetypes to give insight to leadership skills and presence.
On the EDI eLearning section of our website you can also find information about the new Menopause in the Workplace online course, and a curated LinkedIn Learning Collection called "Inspire Inclusion - Women in Leadership and Supporting Women at Work". This collection features courses and videos on female empowerment, leadership, inclusion and supporting women in the workplace. Find out more on the website.
UCD now holds an Institutional Silver Award
UCD has been awarded the prestigious institutional Silver Athena Swan Awardin recognition of its ongoing commitment to advancing gender equality and building capacity for evidence-based equality work across all equality grounds, building on our Bronze Awards from 2017 and 2020. We extend our gratitude to the entire University community for their support and engagement throughout this process.
To achieve this accreditation, the University conducted a thorough self-assessment of gender equality challenges and demonstrated significant progress and impact since receiving our Bronze Award in 2020. Additionally, UCD engaged in consultations with employees and students, using their feedback to strengthen the application and guide the development of theGender Equality Action Plan 2024 - 2029.
To view UCD's Gender Equality Action Plan 2024 - 2029, please click here.