What do you want for women by 2020?

Published: Friday, January 06, 2017

On Nollaig na mBan, a day when traditionally men take over care duties, and women celebrate their Christmas, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has launched a campaign to promote engagement with the new National Women’s Strategy 2016 -2020. NWCI are calling on women to engage with the Department of Justice and Equality consultations around the country, and to make submissions.

Orla O’Connor, Director of NWCI said,
“Issues such as abortion, violence against women and the gender pay gap dominated the news in 2016. It is clear that we are a long way off achieving our vision for women’s equality. The new National Women’s Stategy 2016 – 2020 represents a real opportunity to reflect on the diversity of women’s experiences. It is an important moment for women to have their voices heard, and to an ambitious strategy which sees us achieve a feminist future by 2020.”

Orla O’Connor continued,
“There are so many critical issues for women in Ireland in 2017; one in five will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, 50% of those earning €20,000 or less a year are women, while 4,000 women will travel every year to access abortion services that are not available in Ireland. Austerity budgets created such a divide between women and men’s earnings that the gender pay gap is 14.4% and the gender pensions gap is 37%.”

Orla O’Connor concluded,
“The new National Women’s Strategy will be our biggest opportunity this year to really grapple with the underlying causes and consequences of women’s inequality. It must be robust and ambitious if it is to make a real difference to the lives of women in poverty, Traveller women, migrant women and women in all their diversity and experiences.  The plan must be concrete and measurable, so that in 2020, we can look back from a very different Ireland.”

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For more information, please contact Sarah Clarkin, Communications Officer, 085 8619087.

Notes to the Editor:

The Department of Justice are holding consultations on the new National Women’s Strategy. The public consultation meeting in Dublin will take place at the Alexander Hotel on 18 January 2017, with registration open until 12 January. Registration is still open for the meetings in Sligo on 12 January and in Athlone on 16 January. For details of all dates and how to register your interest in attending please see www.genderequality.ie. Individual contributions may be made by written submission, with details available at www.genderequality.ie