Oxford University announced this week its nomination of Professor Louise Richardson for the school's most senior role of vice-chancellor, who, if approved, will be the first woman to hold the position in the university's nearly 800-year history.
Should the Oxford Congregation approve Richardson, she will take over from Professor Andrew Hamilton on January 1, 2016, and retain the position for seven years.
Richardson, currently the vice-chancellor of Scotland's St. Andrews University, told the Guardian that she was honored by the nomination.
"I look forward to the day when a woman being appointed isn't in itself news," Richardson said. "Unfortunately, academia like most professions is pyramid-shaped -- the higher up you go the fewer women there are."
Richardson said she hopes her nomination inspires current and potential Oxford women undergrads to try and reverse the pyramid. Oxford's undergraduate population is currently 45% women.
Richard also said her goal for her vice-chancellorship will be to diversify the university's population in terms of socioeconomic class. "At St Andrews, ... we have dramatically increased the proportion of poor kids we accept," Richardson told the Guardian. Forty percent of the students Oxford accepts annually were educated in private high schools.
"My parents did not go to college, most of my siblings did not go to college. The trajectory of my life has been made possible by education. So I am utterly committed to others having the same opportunity I have had," she said.
Richardson, 56, is best known for her expertise on the growth of terrorist movements.
Growing up in Ireland during the IRA era, Richardson was exposed to violent protest organizations from a young age. Her expertise culminated in her highly acclaimed book What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy Containing the Threat, published in 2006.
"My closest friend ... and I were recruited by the student branch of the IRA," Richardson wrote in the book's introduction, "I attended meetings and discussions but said I would not join as I could not endorse the use of violence."
Before taking the position of vice-chancellor at St. Andrews, becoming the first female vice-chancellor of that institution in 600 years, Richardson was an award-winning professor at Harvard.