System full of ‘rebel’ women

THE chattering, selfcongratulatory elites were in full voice of late following the sad and premature death of Marian Finucane.

They basked in her reflected glory, talking about the huge advances that she and others achieved for women in Ireland – but, all the time failing, shamefully, to recognise there is no truth at all to such claims.

Revolutions the world over are led by educated, middle-class idealists who make such a racket that eventually they are absorbed by the system and allowed to share some of the goodies.

It’s been the same here with the so-called women’s movement. Elements of the leadership cadre took up roles previously reserved for men, earned the big bucks and pretended regime change.

Meanwhile, in the real world an increasing number of women are being killed (225 between 1996 and 2019), beaten and battered in ther own homes. Shamefully, NINE requests for refuge by women suffering domestic abuse here are ignored every single day.

Nearly 11,000 women are now being supported by abuse services annually – while the vast majority of women continue to suffer in silence.

So, where are all these great advances for women?

Only 22% of TDs are women, compared to 46% in Sweden and 47% in

Spain.

Women get 35% less than men when they retire and are half as likely as men to have vocational pensions.

Women with degrees in the key 24-64 age bracket earn about 30% less than their male counterparts.

When it comes to top business women are effectively excluded. CSO figures reveal that chairs are 92% men, directors 80%, CEOs 89% and senior executives 72%.

In Ireland, as elsewhere, troublesome women rebels of the 1960s and 1970s were invited in and embraced by the system. For them things improved.

For the rest? Those women were ‘encouraged’ to work, falling prey to bankers who licked their lips and turned a singlewage mortgage into one needing two wages to pay.

Women now have the double stress of career and home – and delaying their families because of careers, which almost always hit the glass ceiling.

Great advances for women, right?