Women better educated yet earn less and remain under-represented in decision-making
1 February 2012
On Thursday 2nd Feb, the Seanad will debate the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill, which seeks to address the under-representation of women in politics by reducing the public funding of political parties which fail to run a minimum percentage of candidates of either gender.
The lack of women in decision making was highlighted in the study 'Men and Women in Ireland' published this week by the Central Statistics Office. The study shows that in 2011, only 15% of TDs in Dáil Éireann were women, while they accounted for just over a third of members of State Boards, less than a fifth of members of local authorities and just over a third of the membership of Vocational Education Committees.
The barriers to women entering politics have been identified as the 5 C's: Cash, Caring duties, Confidence, Culture and Candidate selection procedures. This analysis is supported by the results of the CSO study which show that women earned 73% of men's average salary in 2009. When adjusted for women working shorter hours they earned only 94% of men's salary, notwithstanding higher education and qualifications.
Although better educated, women are less likely to be in the labour force and are less well represented in senior positions. More than half a million women in 2011 were looking after home/family compared with only 9,600 men while 90% of lone parents are female.
It is clear that the still quite gendered lives of men and women continue to make accessing politics a different experience for men and women. In order to comply with the Government Bill political parties will have to not only address the way in which they carry out candidate selection but put in place strategies to attract more women to run for political office and provide the supports necessary to overcome the barriers.
Labour Women welcome the historic debate in the Seanad on Thu 2nd Feb as a crucial step in this process and will be represented in the public gallery.
