Spot the Woman

Published: Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Speaking at the launch of the National Women's Council of Ireland's "No Going Back" campaign last night, Sallyann Kinahan, deputy general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said that those making decisions in this country were overwhelmingly "male, over 55 and have a view on women's role that doesn't fit modern reality." This morning, a conference on "National Recovery- the Role of the Public Service" is being addressed by a panel of speakers - all of whom are men.

Speakers at the Institute of Public Administration conference included An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen and Colm McCarthy, author of the report into cutting public expenditure which has caused intense anxiety and anger among the members of the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI). "Women around the country are losing their jobs. They are losing their access to childcare. They have been threatened with cuts which will decimate services in their communities. Yet the organisers of this conference did not see fit to have even one woman on this platform at a time of national crisis," said Susan McKay, director of the NWCI.

"Women are the major providers of public services, and they are the major users of public services," she said. "Why is their voice not considered necessary?" The NWCI has pointed out that five of the six McCarthy team were men, that there is only one woman along with 15 men on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and Public Service, that there were just 5 women on the Commission on Taxation and 13 men, that only 13% of TDs and Senators are women.

The National Women's Council is urging women to scrutinise influential bodies at local and national level to "Spot the Woman". In cases where less than 40% of those involved are women, we are urging women to demand to know why this is the case, and to propose suitable women to take part. "Women are half of the population of Ireland," said McKay. "When are the men who run this country going to start listening to us?"