List highlights gender imbalance on State boards

Many State companies remain well below the Government's stated objective of achieving a 40 per cent representation for women at board level. The failure to achieve gender balance on State boards was highlighted by the Women in Technology and Science (WITS) organisation which yesterday published a "talent bank" listing 100 Irish women with the skills necessary to serve on State boards.

The organisation's chairperson, Dr Jacqueline Allan, presented copies of its WITS Talent Bank and the European Handbook of Women in Science, Engineering and Technology to the Minister of State with special responsibility for science and technology, Mr Noel Treacy. The documents left "no excuse" to boards which said that no suitable woman could be found to ensure a gender balance, Mr Treacy said.

Most State boards were not achieving the 40 per cent balance, according to Dr Allan, who specialises in science and technology policy. "They say they don't know where to find the women," she said.

WITS decided to prepare a list of women in senior academic, research and managerial positions suitable to "play a full role" at board level, she said. This was its third list but it was much more extensive and was indexed and cross-referenced with biographies of each entry, she added.

The 40 per cent representation for women was established as the recommended target figure by the 1992 Fianna Fail-Labour coalition and was carried forward by successive governments, according to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

The average figure for women sitting on State boards was 26.1 per cent. This was based on the most recent figures compiled in December 1996, according to the Department. Ministerial or governmental nominees to boards were somewhat higher at 34 per cent.

The IPA Yearbook suggests that 32 per cent of State board members were women, based on figures taken from 31 State boards. There was much variation in the representation from board to board.

About 82 per cent of the Employment Equality Agency board, for example, were women, while on the Legal Aid Board it was 54 per cent. Yet only 9 per cent of the Energy Advisory Board, 11 per cent of FAS, 14 per cent of the National Lottery, 17 per cent of the An Post and CIE boards and 18 per cent of the Teagasc board were women.