The Independent reports on LW poster launch

Issued : Friday 7 March, 2008

Poster girls highlight inequality

By Anne-Marie Walsh, The Independent
Friday March 07 2008

THE Irish "jobs for the boys" culture was in the spotlight yesterday when a political party challenged our male-dominated Cabinet.

Labour printed a mock-up of what the Cabinet would look like if the representation of the sexes were reversed.

The 'Jobs for the Girls' postcard was issued to show how far behind Irish politics is in promoting equality.

Although the ratio of female parliamentarians in the EU, at 24pc, is nothing to be proud of, the Irish record is abysmal.

Women make up just 13pc of the Dail and just three of the 16 Cabinet members are female.

Some parties are more female-friendly than others. A total of 35pc of Labour's TDs are female, compared with 9pc in Fine Gael and 8pc in Fianna Fail.

"Women's under-representation is something we are used to, and too often we ignore the fact that it matters," said Sinead Ni Chulachian, Chair of Labour Women.

Meanwhile, a new report by the European Commission shows that women across Europe are still shut out of the top jobs in politics and business. Last year, just under a quarter of parliamentarians in the EU were women, up from 16pc in 1997.

The report has been published to mark International Women's Day tomorrow, and comes ahead of a new European Network of women in power, to be launched later this year.

In our picture, Labour Spokeswoman on Health Jan O'Sullivan and Labour TD Liz McManus met Senator David Norris and TV personality Lucy Kennedy at the launch the Labour Women's Day poster in front of the Dail yesterday.

- Anne-Marie Walsh