Orla o’Connor
Director, national Women’s council of ireland
Equality for women is at the heart of Orla O’Connor’s job, she explains why she feels very lucky every day i came from a traditional family in the sense that my mam did all of the care work.
Even then I had a feeling that there was something unfair about that. She was a woman who gave up work and really would have struggled trying to get access to pensions. The whole trajectory of her life showed the cumulative effect of inequality in women’s lives.
it’s what i wanted to do in life so i feel very privileged to have this role
You look back at certain moments in your life that make you think a certain way, and for me it was when i was in fifth or sixth year.
The Dunnes Stores strike against apartheid in Africa happened and I became really interested in that. For me, it was the start of really thinking about the world and how things were. From there I set up a small anti-apartheid group in school. While at college I worked in Roches [department store], and I became involved in the rights of part-time workers, because back then there was no recognition for them. I could see the huge difference it made to those around me not having those rights, getting low pay and struggling with it.
in finglas, north Dublin, there were centres for the unemployed, and i was asked to fill in and be the coordinator. i ended up there for years.
It was during my time there that I really became more involved in women’s issues. I saw the struggles that women were going through, particularly lone parents, or older women trying to get back into work, there was so little support for them to do it. I also saw domestic violence and the impact that had on communities.
i started to work in the national Women’s council in 2000, as a policy analyst.
I’m a lone parent and even though I’m privileged because the job that I work in is properly paid, I continuously see the struggles of lone parents around issues like childcare and how difficult it is for them. the national Women’s council has 190 member groups that range from local community groups to large organisations like the irish country Women’s association.
There’s a huge diversity with the members we have. The role of our team is to bring all of that together so that we can give very clear direction to the Government about what they need to do for women’s equality.
i absolutely love being director of the Women’s council and i really enjoy my work.
It’s what I wanted to do in life so I feel very privileged to have this role. At the heart of the Women’s Council is the lived experience of women. I often think of the Women’s Council like a microcosm of Irish society. A typical day could be meeting politicians, for example at the moment we are lobbying for quota legislation. It’s also about planning the next action, the next protest, the next campaign. Each day the team meets to discuss what we are doing for the day ahead, what we need to respond to and what we want to put out. It’s a real mix in terms of activism, meetings, and quite a bit of media work.
i could not do this job without the huge support of my mum.
I am so grateful because I wouldn’t be able to do the things I have without her.
is ireland a good country to be a woman? i would say yes and no. There have been significant changes for women, obviously around abortion but also legislation around parental leave, however we have such a long way to go. The pace of change is so slow, there is definitely a frustration and anger. The leadership isn’t there from the
Government in terms of just going and doing it. There’s always another round of consultations.
Women have the main responsibility for care whether it’s paid or unpaid, it’s not recognised and it’s not valued.
If that issue was addressed it would make an enormous difference to women’s equality. Women make decisions on the jobs they go into based on care. The type of job, where that job might be and how it all fits in. The other issue that goes to the heart of women’s equality is violence against women. During Covid we have seen the extent of domestic violence, there are really high numbers but the supports aren’t there, there are waiting lists for services and refuges.
i think the career highlight for me was definitely repeal the eighth.
It was such an important issue and I wanted to put the resources of the Women’s Council into tackling it. It was great seeing all women of different generations coming together, and also the outcome which was overwhelmingly in favour of allowing access to abortion services in Ireland. There was a feeling of leaving behind an Ireland that didn’t value women. It was about more than abortion, it was about it being time for women to be equal.