IF ALL YOU were to look at were Ireland’s scores in international rankings, you would think the country is doing pretty well on gender equality.

In the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) index, Ireland scored 73.1 out of 100, ranking 7th in the EU overall and five points above the EU’s own score. 

But underneath these box-ticking rankings is the reality for women in Ireland. 

Polling by The Good Information Project/Ireland Thinks at the start of January found that a majority of people in Ireland, both men and women, acknowledge inequalities in the home, in politics and in the workplace. 

Some of these inequalities intensified during the pandemic and following the killing of Ashling Murphy, as there has been much discussion on how best to tackle violence against women and the ingrained misogyny that contributes to it. 

Over the last four weeks, The Good Information Project has been focused on gender equality, and particularly on concrete and achievable solutions. This is a global problem and there is no quick fix, but there are clear answers for what the Irish government can and should be doing to make the country more equal. 

Here’s a round-up of everything we’ve covered on this issue over the past few weeks:

Childcare should be a priority

• Increased State spend on childcare ‘not enough’ to solve crisis for parents and providers
• ‘It’s put me off having more kids’: Your stories of childcare in Ireland during the pandemic
• Poll: Should there be a network of State-run childcare centres?

Following the latest lifting of restrictions, many workplaces have now re-opened fully for the first time in two years. For employees with children, another fresh childcare plan will have to be worked out.

When we asked readers for their experiences with childcare since the start of the pandemic, the most common issues raised were affordability, availability, and the mental strain that it puts on families.

In our Ireland Thinks polling, the top choice for respondents, when asked about priorities in terms of achieving gender equality in Ireland, was universal State-funded childcare. 

Parents in Ireland face some of the most expensive childcare costs in the European Union and parental leave entitlements are also among the worst in the developed world. 

A deep-dive into the issue by Noteworthy for The Good Information Project highlighted that childcare can work for parents, children and wider society when: 

• It is fully publicly funded
• It encompasses early years care, pre-school, school-age and even care for teenagers
• It is of high quality, built around the needs and wishes of children rather than being treated like a ‘storage system’
• It is supported by adequate paid parental leave

Experts in the area explained that one key flaw in the traditional system in Ireland was that childcare was treated as a private issue, to be managed by families and private providers, not by the State.

This is changing, but more money and more responsibility on the part of the State may be needed to rebalance some of the additional inequalities created during the pandemic. 

The root causes of violence against women

• The Explainer: What can Ireland do to become a safer place for women?
• ‘I wasn’t prepared for this’: Experts say online abuse against women increased during pandemic
• Open Thread: Have you experienced gendered abuse or harassment online?

The pandemic placed certain elements of gender inequality under the microscope. We know that reports of domestic violence increased, as victims were stuck in their homes with abusive partners during lockdowns.

In 2020 there was a 10% increase in domestic abuse incidents records by gardaí and calls to Women’s Aid were up 24% on 2019. 

There is also evidence that online abuse of women increased during the pandemic. Research shows negative experiences online cause women to change their behaviour on social media sites and it is a particular concern for women who are considering leadership positions or entering politics. 

According to an analysis published last month by data scientist Dr Ian Richardson, female councillors in Ireland received eight times as many abusive tweets per follower than their male colleagues.

Sexual harassment is also a risk for female politicians online. Independent councillor for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Deirdre Donnelly shared her experience of this with The Journal.

She received a slew of inappropriate and explicit messages on Facebook. 

Donnelly told The Journal that these messages left her feeling vulnerable, wondering whether this individual may turn up at events she attended or even at her home. 

She said knowing she would face this type of online abuse would have discouraged her from entering into political life.

“I wasn’t prepared for any of this, to be honest,” she said. “I can live with criticism over my views on certain things or the way I vote, but I didn’t think I’d be subjected to this kind of thing at all.”

There is no “quick fix” when it comes to addressing violence against women in all its forms, Orla O’Connor, Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland told The Explainer podcast. 

“We absolutely need to have a core curriculum that tackles domestic and sexual and gender based violence, but that also tackles the culture that’s created in that from misogyny and sexism,” she said.

Current legislation in relation to harassment is “quite weak”, O’Connor said as it fails to adequately deal with incidences like catcalling. 

“We need to tackle it at that level and not wait until it gets more serious,” she said. 

“Right now we’re not doing that, our legislation on harassment is quite weak, it more refers to patterns of behaviour.

“So those that type of harassment that we’re talking about on the street don’t really come under any particular legislation. And the guards don’t have a lot of powers around it either.”

More women at the decision-making tables

• Jan O’Sullivan: Decisions in the Dáil affect us all, which is why it needs more women
• Why are we more likely to send a woman to the European Parliament than the Dáil?

In the next general election (assuming the current government lasts the year) political parties will be expected to ensure that at least 40% of their candidates are women. 

Fewer than one quarter of the TDs elected to the 33rd Dáil in 2020 were women and female candidates similarly took just 25% of seats at the most recent local election.

While quotas have made a difference, having a 40% quota on candidates does not mean 40% of those elected will be female; and when it comes to the make-up of the Cabinet, it is still significantly male-dominated. 

During our Open Newsroom event last month, MEP and former minister Frances Fitzgerald expressed her frustration with the pace of the progress in this area.

“I want to see 50% women in the Dáil. It’s snail’s pace, it’s ridiculous,” she said. “It does make a difference, you get a much more broadly-based discussion, the decision-making is better and so on.”

Quotas in other areas are also on the agenda. First-time Fine Gael TD Emer Higgins has introduced a bill into the Dáil which would see companies required to have at least 40% of each gender on their boards within three years of the law’s implementation.

It has been done elsewhere successfully – in fact Ireland could be considered late to the game – and Higgins said this kind of visibility at the highest levels of business can provide role models for young women. Research has indicated diversity may also be good for business. 

Gender equality on boards, however, has not necessarily trickled down to executive levels. 

A recent report from European Women on Boards, found that out of 668 companies, just 50 had a female CEO. Only 169 companies had at least one female member of the C-suite [executive-level managers] and just 9% of chairs of boards were women. 

While many companies are working to change their corporate cultures and include a better mix in recruitment – not just in terms of gender – the business community recognises that improvements are needed. 

Pay and working structures need an overhaul

• Women in medicine: ‘The system is still designed to suit people with no attachments or responsibilities’
• FactFind: Women are just over 50% of the population. Do they have 50% of jobs and economic power?
• Women in academia: ‘What women get is endless mentoring, instead of a focus on changing the structures’
• Ireland’s gender pay gap is better than the EU average – what else can be done to fix it?

Gender equality issues present themselves in different ways in different sectors. In academia, for example, women now account for more than half of lecturers, but only 27% of professors in universities are female. Women and minorities are also over-represented in precarious academic jobs, while permanent full-time contracts are disproportionately held by men.

In medicine, women account for 56% of trainees, but men hold just under two-thirds of consultant posts in hospitals. Female consultants are particularly underrepresented in areas such as surgery (15%), emergency medicine (29%) and anaesthesiology (34%).

In general, the gender pay gap in Ireland has been fluctuating over the past decade. According to Eurostat data, it rose from 12.7% in 2011 to a high of 14.4% in 2017, before dropping to 11.3% in 2019, the most recent year that figures are available.

New legislation requiring large companies to publish information on the gender pay gap in their organisations is expected to come into force later this year. Employers have been warned to begin work ahead of time to address disparities as they risk reputational damage once the gap becomes public. 

While the move to working from home may have levelled out caring responsibilities in some families, there are concerns now that a return to offices and new hybrid working options may have created new opportunities for discrimination in terms of pay and career prospects. 

What happens next?

The government does have a few things in the pipeline – and no end of advice from experts on how to do better.

A study this year will evaluate processes for implementing the National Strategy for Women and Girls and a new strategy will be drafted for the years ahead. 

Justice Minister Helen McEntee is also leading the development of a national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Last month she said the strategy will be “underpinned by clear actions, timelines for reform and robust accountability mechanisms”. 

She pledged to publish a bill before Easter which will include new criminal offences for stalking and for non-fatal strangulation. And her department is due to launch a national campaign on consent. 

A referendum on an article of the Constitution relating to women’s place in the home is due to take place at some stage, but no date has been set and there are still mixed opinions on how it should be handled. 

And on childcare, one of the major issues identified throughout this cycle, the government has committed to a programme of investing €1 billion per year by 2028. It has also pledged under the First5 strategy to move to a new model that will include more public management as well as funding. 

But it is under increasing pressure to make bigger moves to help parents, particularly now as ministers consider how to address the rising cost of living. 

This weekend marks the end of this cycle of The Good Information Project. The next cycle will explore Ireland’s readiness for the digital future, as everything from employment to education, retail to public services move increasingly online.

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.