Time for Government to be embarrassed into action over new figures on inequality, says National Wome

Published: Monday, February 08, 2010

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the government must urgently apply itself to tackling persistent and unacceptable inequalities for women in Ireland. According to the National Women's Council of Ireland, the new Women and Men in Ireland figures put Ireland to shame on the international stage.

"Last year Fianna Fail and the Greens agreed a revised programme for government which committed the government to ensuring that gender equality continued to advance, despite what they described as 'difficult times'", said NWCI director Susan McKay. "They also promised to introduce mechanism to increase the participation of women in political life. Today's CSO figures must embarrass them into action."

"Women in Ireland still earn just two thirds of what men earn, still take most of the responsibility for caring for children, and are still concentrated in the lowest paid jobs, " she said.

"Ten years after the Council of Europe set out the objective of equal participation of women and men in decision making, Ireland is languishing 23rd in the EU. Less than 14% of TD's are women, and men make up 80% of those in local and regional authorities."

The NWCI last year deplored the stripping of funds from the National Women's Strategy. "Today's figures are a sharp reminder that strategies to bring about equality for women cannot be treated as luxuries - we are half the population and the government must recognise that we cannot continue to be treated as second class citizens."