SECOND OPINION:Irish society is suffering from high testosterone levels, writes JACKY JONES
THE MALE hormone testosterone seems to be responsible for most of Ireland’s economic and social problems. Reports published last week are serendipitously linked and together explain exactly what is wrong with the way Irish life has been organised since the State’s foundation.
The first report is Women and Men in Ireland 2011 from the Central Statistics Office, which shows that women are still miserably under-represented at every level of Irish society. Men outnumber women in all national decision-making structures including State boards and Government: only 13 per cent of Ministers are women. Men also outnumber women in all regional decision-making structures, with men accounting for four out of five members of local authorities and three out of four members of County Enterprise Boards.
Although two-thirds of civil servants are women, the vast majority of top jobs are held by men who are less well qualified. Women are still 50 times more likely than men to be looking after home and family. Men are twice as likely to be managers and directors whereas women are four times more likely to be secretaries.
The Proceedings of the Royal Society in the UK also published research last week which found that testosterone disrupts collaborative decision-making. It is well known that collaboration between people can benefit individuals and society as a whole. Aggregation of members’ personal knowledge and opinions greatly enhances group decision-making. Jury decisions are examples of collaborative practice; it is generally accepted that 10-12 people acting collectively make better decisions than one person acting alone. Too much testosterone means that decisions are egocentric instead of synergistic.
Egocentric decisions are based on the need for power and status and not what is best for the group as a whole.
Status anxiety is a formidable barrier to collective decision-making and is about who is top dog, not what is right for society. The UK research shows that testosterone interrupts an individual’s ability to successfully collaborate and achieve better outcomes. Too few women in any group, or too much testosterone, means members give greater weight to their own evidence and do not listen to the opinions of others. Discussions are often little better than glorified bull sessions.
Collaborative decision-making is essential for improving the health of the population and to deal with “wicked issues”. These are complex health and societal problems that cannot be solved by any one sector working alone. Poverty, obesity, diabetes and alcohol abuse are just some examples of wicked problems.
While it is blindingly obvious that joined-up problems need joined-up solutions, this does not often happen in practice, and now we know why. Decision-making bodies brought together to solve these problems have too many male members, hence too much testosterone floating around, and not enough women.
During my 36 years working for the Irish health services I was a member of hundreds of working groups and committees. These were generally composed of several different health professionals with token people from the community sector and outside agencies. The “chairs” were mostly men and the work of the groups was invariably done by the female members. Male members liked to hear the sound of their own voices more than they wanted to find collaborative solutions. Meetings were often disrupted by the behaviour of males who wanted to be sure everyone knew just how important they were. During my career two very important strategy groups were disbanded because of the behaviour of male members. This wasted a lot of time and money and, more importantly, the public did not get a strategy that would have improved the health of the population.
It is time to put public policies in place, with legislation if necessary, including gender quotas, to ensure equal representation of both sexes in all decision-making structures. A Bill has been published to ensure women make up 30 per cent of candidates in the next general election. Parties that do not comply will have their State funding cut in half. While this is a step in the right direction, it is not good enough. Nothing less than a 50/50 mix of men and women will do.
Dr Jacky Jones is a former regional manager of health promotion with the HSE