In this article, the focus is on understanding the success of one university in increasing the proportion of women at professorial level from zero in 1997 to 34 per cent in 2012, considerably above the averages for Irish, European Union and Australian universities. Using a concept of leadership "as a process of influence" and drawing on both documentary and experiential evidence, it identifies four stages and key factors in that transition, including the situational context of a new university; positional and informal leadership; increased transparency and the prioritisation of disciplines with high levels of professorial posts and where the appointment of women was structurally more likely. It illustrates the extent of the change that can occur, even in intractable areas such as the university professoriate. Such change is neither inevitable nor permanent.