Women are under-represented in politics, on State boards and in public service higher management positions, according to a new report published yesterday. Fiona Gartland reports.
The Women and Men in Ireland 2005 report published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) noted that just over 13 per cent of TDs were women. It said women accounted for 30 per cent of the members of State boards and for less than 20 per cent of the membership of local authorities.
Although 80 per cent of people employed in the education and health sectors were women, they were not well represented at senior level.
In the health sector in 2005 only 29 per cent of medical and dental consultants were women. And in 2003, though 86 per cent of primary teachers were women, there were only 51 per cent at the level of primary school managers.
Almost 80 per cent of staff in clerical grades in the Civil Service were women in 2003, but they represented only 11 per cent of staff at assistant and deputy secretary levels.
Women's income in 2003 was just over 65 per cent of men's income in the same year. And the proportion of women at risk of poverty was almost 23 per cent in 2004 compared to 18 per cent of men.
The report examined differences in the lives of men and women in Ireland in eight areas: employment, population, education, health, transport, social cohesion and lifestyles, crime and EU indicators.
Joanna McMinn, director of the National Women's Council of Ireland, said the report's key issue was how under-represented women still were in decision-making. "Until there is equal representation in parliament women's needs won't be addressed," she said. "We would be keen to see what the government are going to do to address these issues in its national women's strategy next year."
Employment rates continued to increase for both women and men. In 2005, 58 per cent of women were in employment, exceeding the EU target. The employment rate for men was 76.2 per cent.
Ireland had the lowest unemployment rate for both men and women in the EU, with 4.9 per cent of the male and 3.7 per cent of the female labour force unemployed. The EU average is 8.6 per cent for men and 10.1 for women.
But Ireland has the closest gender balance in the EU with 101 women for every 100 men. Women have a longer life expectancy than men, living on average five years more. Men are also more likely to die younger, particularly in the 15-24 years age group, in which men are 3.4 times more likely than women to die. The rate of male deaths by suicide was more than three times the female rate in 2004.
The early school-leavers' rate for women was almost 10 per cent in 2004, much lower than the male rate of just over 16 per cent.
There were higher proportions of females taking English and European languages at Leaving Certificate higher level in 2004 but males had higher rates of participation in technical subjects. Around 95 per cent of Leaving Cert students taking higher level engineering, construction studies and technical drawing examinations were male.
And at third level, men accounted for around 80 per cent of graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction.
As for health, the rate at which women were undergoing preventative medical examinations in 2002 was considerably lower than the rate for women in other EU states.
Just over 16 per cent of Irish women aged 15 and over had cervical smears compared with 32 per cent in other EU states.