INTERNATIONAL Women's Day is celebrated on March 8, and is an occasion marked by women’s organisations and groups around the world. The date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday, when women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate. They also look back on a tradition that represents over a century of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
In Northern Ireland it is time to celebrate what we have gained and also how far we still have to go to achieve full gender equality. In 2013 the Equality Commission put the gender pay gap in Northern Ireland at 10 per cent.
With only 22 out of 108 MLAs being women, and using the calculation of political empowerment developed by the World Economic Forum (2014), Northern Ireland would rank 67 out of 143 countries, placing it in proximity to countries such as Zimbabwe, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Poland, Honduras and Ethiopia. In contrast, the UK as whole is 33rd and Ireland eighth.
If we cast our eye to the boardroom, a survey of the top 100 companies in Northern Ireland shows that 77 of the 499 board members registered at Companies House are women (15.4 per cent). Two of the companies surveyed have more female than male directors, five have gender parity and 42 have boards with no women at all.
Indeed we have had to wait until 2015 to have two (out of 10) female High Court judges - Denise McBride QC and Siobhan Keegan QC - finally break through the long-standing glass ceiling in the region's judiciary. Prior to the appointments, around 22 per cent of senior judicial posts were filled by women, with none at High Court level or above.
I am part of the organising committee for International Women’s day and regularly speak to women held back, not by the glass ceiling but by what they refer to as the ‘concrete floor’.
While women may have had the skills to compete for the top jobs, the age old barriers and issues are still there to stifle progression. The lack of affordable and accessible childcare, society’s stereotyped perception of women as carer leads women to putting their careers on hold to look after children and or parents. The adversarial culture of politics in Northern Ireland, and continuing low pay, zero hour contract nature of today’s employment, all add up to keep us ‘in our place’.
As for our future; there can never be genuine prosperity without women’s equal and full participation in all aspects of Northern Ireland society which must include the political economic, social and cultural arenas.
We want to do that on an equal footing and within alternative, progressive and democratic economic systems, that are built to recognise and sustain equality and not just pay lip service to it.
:: Kellie O’Dowd is on the board of Reclaim the Agenda, the organising committee for International Women’s Day in Northern Ireland.
