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President Higgins, Distinguished Speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

I am delighted to be here with you this morning at such a prestigious and important event and I would like to thank Emily Logan and Orla O’Connor for their kind invitation.

 

In 1995, I was privileged to be in Beijing on the occasion of the adoption of the historic Declaration and Platform for Action. The sense of optimism and opportunity in the air was palpable. The Platform had laid the groundwork for the practical steps that all countries must take to implement real and lasting change for women around the world. The new challenge lay in turning these inspiring words into action.

 

In Ireland, the Beijing Conference coincided with a period of sustained public focus on gender equality, in the aftermath of the Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women in 1993. I am pleased to say that I served on the Second Commission and was, at that time, Chair of the National Women’s Council.

 

I’d like to take the opportunity this morning to highlight what I see as the key changes over this period, since 1995, the issues that remain outstanding and our plans in Government to address them.

 

Early achievements included establishing a statutory infrastructure to support equality and human rights. This included the Human Rights Commission (established in 2001) and the Equality Authority (1999), now merged into the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission with enhanced powers and a wider scope. At this time too, a forum for redress which later became the Equality Tribunal and is now part of the Workplace Relations Service was set up.

 

This infrastructure gave force to groundbreaking legislation to combat discrimination. Our legislation in this area prohibits discrimination on the ground of gender in non-employment areas such as the provision of goods and services, education etc. as well as in employment. It includes important protections for pregnant workers and in relation to maternity leave and allows for positive actions to ensure full equality in practice. The statutory minimum wage has been credited with having a positive impact on the gender pay gap. The introduction in the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 of a new positive duty obliges public bodies to have regard, in performing their functions, to the need to eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity and treatment. These are some of the steps that have been taken since Beijing.

 

Other landmarks include the adoption of the National Women's Strategy, setting out a comprehensive whole-of-Government approach to promoting equal treatment and well-being of women, and embedding the concept of gender mainstreaming in public administration. We have established new executive offices to coordinate services addressing domestic violence, sexual violence and other forms of gender based violence, and to combat human trafficking, supported by criminal sanctions.

 

The status of women, not least in education and employment, has changed.

 

The increase in female employment and the labour market attachment of women is one of the defining features of recent Irish history. The number of women in employment in Ireland has increased by almost 50% since 1995 and women now account for over 45% of our total workforce.

 

The educational attainment of our women now surpasses that of men throughout the working age population and women continue to make inroads into previously male-dominated professions. Just last week, newly released statistics from the Law Society of Ireland show that, for the first time in any legal profession in the world, gender parity has been reached among Irish solicitors. This is an important achievement which we must work towards replicating and normalising across other sectors.

 

Women are also present in greater numbers in our boardrooms. While female representation on the boards of ISEQ 20 listed companies stood at 10.6% last October, compared to an EU average of 20.2% for comparable companies, this is not typical of companies in general. Industry data for Ireland shows that female company directors now account for 36% of all company directors, with their number having more than doubled in a decade. An equally promising statistic is that 41% of directors of new start-ups in 2013 were women. Enterprise Ireland has seen the number of female-led new businesses successfully competing for funding increase from 7 in 2011, to 43, or 23% of the enterprises funded, in 2014. Certainly, that is still not enough but it does represent progress.

 

The 2009 Report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights on Women’s Participation in Politics started a public debate which is still ongoing. As an important step to addressing the under-representation of women in politics, we enacted legislation in 2012 linking State funding for political parties to achieving gender candidate quotas in general elections.

 

On the international front, Ireland put the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, including its commitment to gender equality, at the heart of Irish Aid's development policy. Our first national action plan to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325, on women, peace and security was developed in an innovative process involving Liberia and Timor-Leste. The second action plan was launched recently.

 

I feel it is important that we take the time to acknowledge our successes, while recognising there are a number of outstanding issues which we must overcome if we are to fully implement the Beijing Platform for Action across its twelve critical areas of concern. The main issues I see are those concerned with economic independence, decision-making, and supporting greater sharing of domestic and care duties.

 

While great strides have been made, the fact remains that poverty is still a major concern for many women. Ensuring the economic independence of women is key to protecting women from the risk of poverty, particularly in older age.

 

Difficulty in accessing affordable childcare, occupational gender segregation and gendered school subject choices are among the root causes of the gender pay gap. The Government’s response includes continued and focused State investment in the professional childcare sector, and encouraging women and men to work in non-traditional sectors. In particular we are encouraging our girls and young women to participate in greater numbers in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, both in school and in third-level to ensure that future job opportunities and career paths are not lost.

 

Change in the critical area of women in power and decision-making has been disappointingly slow, both in Ireland and across Europe. This Government has placed a renewed focus on gender balance in decision-making, leading with new targeted measures announced last year to promote gender balance on State Boards, including a Talent Bank of women qualified to serve on such Boards, to be developed in partnership with the Public Appointments Service.

 

In order to facilitate gender balance in positions of power and decision-making, and the economic independence of women, we must also fully commit as a society to the sharing of responsibilities between women and men in home and family life. As time use studies continue to show, the burden of domestic and unpaid caring duties within families still falls disproportionately to women. We are looking at Article 41.2 of the Constitution, the language of which is obviously anachronistic.

 

Acknowledging these remaining challenges, I am nevertheless certain that we are once again on the cusp of an important historical time in the pursuit of gender equality, both in Ireland and globally. It is up to all of us to ensure that the spotlight remains on those challenges still to be addressed and to foster an inclusive approach which also includes men and boys at the heart of initiatives to achieve our objective of true gender equality, in our homes, in our workplaces and in our society.

 

Thank you.

 

ENDS