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THE PRINTWORKS CONFERENCE CENTRE

DUBLIN CASTLE

TUESDAY, 25TH NOVEMBER　

Almost twenty years ago, when I attended the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, it was all confidence and optimism. True gender equality could be achieved with the signing of the Beijing Declaration and the implementation of its Platform for Action. That was the belief. It didn’t happen.

In the intervening years we have seen great progress made, not least in female employment and women’s educational attainment. Despite these positive trends, getting a critical mass of women into positions of power and decision-making has been disappointingly slow, in Ireland and across Europe.

This Government has placed a renewed focus on gender balance in decision-making.

We have included specific commitments in the Programme for Government to enhance the participation of women, including on State Boards and in public life.

We are taking steps to ensure all State boards have at least 40% of women.

We publicly restated this commitment in July of this year with the announcement of new measures to promote gender balance on State Boards, including the establishment by my own Department of a pilot Talent Bank of women qualified to serve on State Boards. This Talent Bank will be developed with the support of the Public Appointments Service and you will hear from its CEO, Fiona Tierney, later today.

We must never allow gender balance in decision-making to be portrayed as mere political correctness. We often hear that gender is irrelevant. We’re told the best person should be appointed regardless of gender. Let me lay it on the line here. Whilst we all accept that the person appointed must be fully qualified for the position, I do not believe that men are any more or any less meritorious than women.

The statistics show that women are not being appointed in any significant numbers to senior positions, despite the fact that they account for 51% of our population and that-on average-women are better educated than men. By continuing to draw our leaders mainly from the male pool, we are ignoring the benefits of drawing from both. Equally even more gravely, we are under-utilising the talents of our highly educated women.

The reason why so many companies and organisations worldwide are implementing gender and diversity policies is simple – it makes good business sense.

Men have a key role to play in promoting and supporting gender equality. We must re-brand this from a “women’s issue” to an issue that affects all of society. By challenging the traditional gender stereotypes, involving men in championing gender equality and supporting more men to play an active role in home and family life, we can ensure women and men are free to realise their full potential in their careers.

Achieving gender balance in decision-making roles will require a concerted and sustained effort on the part of leaders across all sectors. Senior leaders must be willing to show a personal commitment to promote gender equality and to implement a cultural change within their organisation.

Today’s conference is a first step in raising awareness of the benefits of gender balance in decision-making and of the need to ensure that we “invest in talent”, both male and female, in order to create an environment which is conducive to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, as envisaged under the Europe 2020 Agenda.

In order to grow our economy we need to maximise and utilise the potential of all of our men and women.

This conference, which has been organised by my Department with the assistance of Ibec, would not have been possible without the funding we receive under the European Union’s Progress programme (2007-2013). The principle of gender equality has been enshrined in the EU since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Indeed, the EU has been instrumental in fostering gender equality in Ireland since our accession back in 1973.

Finally, I would like to thank our guest speakers and our moderator, all of whom have so generously given of their time and expertise in being here with us today. I am sure that their contributions will be both thought-provoking and informative and I encourage you to share your opinions in the Q&A sessions, and to make this conference a lively and dynamic event.

Thank you.

ENDS