Women say….No Going Back

Published: Sunday, August 30, 2009

Women will resist budgetary cuts which, according to the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI), would dismantle rights for which Irish women have struggled for generations. The NWCI says that cutbacks proposed in the McCarthy report, along with others which pre-dated it, would push women out of the workforce and into welfare dependency and poverty; would lead to the scaling down or closure of women's groups which provide vital services; and would halt progress towards equality for women.

"Women are still largely excluded from the positions of power in Irish society," said the director of the NWCI, Susan McKay. "Now we are being excluded from decisions about public expenditure and taxation which will have devastating effects on us, on our organisations and on the communities in which we work."

The McCarthy team consisted of 5 men and one woman. The Commission on Taxation consisted of 13 men and 5 women. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and Public Service consists of 16 men and just one woman. "Women are 51% of the population, but we make up just 13% of members of the Dail and the Seanad, and just 16% of local councils. Just 4% of chief executives in major Irish companies are women," said McKay. "On the other hand, society could not function without the work which women do, including most of the unpaid, caring work."

"Our members are angry because the work they do is under threat," said McKay. "We have called a public meeting in Dublin next Tuesday, 8 September, so that we can demand that women's voices are listened to in debates about how our country can recover from the current economic crisis. We refuse to allow the men who run this country to tell us that equality will have to wait. What women are saying is, "no going back."