AN international economics expert has told a tribunal that she was ignored for a prestige job because she was a woman.

Dr Barbara Ingham, 56, of Waddington Road, Waddington, said in one year alone nine men were appointed as professors above her and she would not be invited to meetings which needed her expertise. Salford University denies sexual discrimination.

But when she asked for explanations from senior figures at the university, Dr Ingham started getting letters saying if she did not take early retirement she would lose her job, the hearing was told.

Later she was not invited to a university lunch for the Department of Economics where she had become the first woman to attain an academic post and was the sole lecturer in International Economics.

She was also ignored when she offered to put herself forward as a university representative, she said.

And, the Manchester hearing was told, for three years she was unable to go networking for promotion because she was assigned to time consuming undergraduate administrative work, known by colleagues as the "graveyard of ambitions."

Eventually Dr Ingham lost her lecture course in International Economics after returning from a summer break to find no rooms were ready for her, she said.

She added that she was finally relegated to taking sub-degree tutorials for accountancy students. She said one decision about her application left her "stunned and greatly upset."

"I believe that I was adequately qualified for a professorship," Dr Ingham told the tribunal. "But the criteria and procedure used by the university discriminated against me directly and indirectly as a woman. "They relied heavily up on the subjective appraisal of male dominated committees and academics which has resulted in a disproportionate number of men being appointed to chairs (professorships).

"I have believed this for many years but it has been confirmed to me in a number of reports and in journal and newspaper articles that have been published since the mid-1990's."

The hearing was told Dr Ingham had been employed by the University of Salford since 1969.

She graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Economics from the University of Manchester in 1966, obtained a Masters Degree in Economics from the LSE in 1967 and completed her PhD in 1973.

When appointed to the Salford Economics Department in 1969 she was the first woman to hold the post and won a succession of promotions.

(The hearing continues)