The Government yesterday unveiled a Gender Equality Policy for the civil service that is long on aspiration and short on practicalities. Where the Government should be leading, it is lagging; where it should be inspiring, it is mundane. This is an issue of substantial importance for a large and growing section of the workeforce. While women constitute roughly half the population of the State, the State itself lags far behind the best examples to hand elsewhere in Europe when it comes to adopting policies and implementing practical measures that would help create a level playing field for women.
In a speech yesterday marking the introduction of the policy, the Taoiseach spoke of the need to bring about a "better deal for women in the civil service". He acknowledged the persistent under-representation of women in higher management grades (17 per cent) and top management grades (9 per cent), and their over representation in clerical grades (69 per cent). And he was candid at the lack of progress in the past 10 years - a one per cent increase in the number of women at Assistant Principal grade from 1987 to 1997. A disgrace, he termed it. Quite so. But who is to blame for this disgrace? Successive governments and successive management teams in the civil service, for it is they who could have done more and certainly ought to do more. Mr Ahern noted that under the new policy, there would be no direct or indirect discrimination against women applying for promotion. This is akin to saying that the civil service must obey the law. As the policy document itself notes, there are several measures already on the statute books designed to ensure equality of opportunity and prevent discrimination based on gender.
The new policy speaks of the need to have family friendly schemes in the civil service, including worksharing, termtime leave and career breaks. While these can help, they are not a panacea. The one measure that could have a strong impact is a policy of State support for childcare facilities. The Government need only look at Scandinavia where every apartment block, every cluster of suburban homes has state-supported pre-school creche facilities. This is what frees women to chose to work outside the home, or not. In last year's budget, £10 million was allocated to Government departments to fund childcare facilities. To date, none has done so. And budgetary measures aimed at helping individuals fund their childcare needs are also unlikely to spark the magnitude of change that is necessary. Within the civil service itself, if the Government is serious about tackling the acknowledged dominance of men, it should ensure that women sit on all interview boards.