Fewer senior women civil servants than seven years ago
TD reveals government has failed to meet its own equality targets
IRELAND still has fewer female top civil servants than seven years ago, despite the regular declarations of support for gender equality by Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar.
Mr Varadkar previously admitted: ‘I don’t think anyone can argue for a second that Ireland is a country where men and women are equal. We fall very far short of that.
‘At the current rate of change it could take many generations before men and women are truly equal and truly have equality of opportunity.’
The outgoing Taoiseach’s concerns are confirmed by figures secured by Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly which reveal that the percentage of women secretaries general, the top mandarin post, has reduced from 26% in 2013 to 24% in 2019.
This represents a slight increase on the 20% recorded in 2016 and 2018 but is embarrassingly below self-proclaimed government equality targets.
It does, however, represent a modest increase on 1997 when just one in 20 top civil servants were female.
The figures also show that equality is higher amongst the lower tiers of the service.
Over 51% of assistant principals are female but the percentage swiftly declines when it comes to principal officers, 44%, and deputy /assistant secretaries general at 37%. Commenting on the figures Ms O’Reilly said: ‘Given that women constitute 52% of the population we have a long journey to take.’
She also asked if ‘the policy on gender equality in the Civil Service first published in 2001 has been reviewed and if a fundamental review to assess its effectiveness will be undertaken’.
Top ranking women in the service include Dr Orlaigh Quinn, secretary general at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Katherine Licken, who holds the equivalent role at the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and Liz Canavan, assistant secretary general at the Taoiseach’s department, who has been prominent in briefing the media on the Covid-19 crisis.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said a wide range of initiatives to improve gender balance across the Civil Service have been developed and are being implemented under Action 8 of the Civil Service Renewal Plan.
He said: ‘The Civil Service Management Board (CSMB), which comprises of the secretaries general in departments, has also identified a range of actions aimed at improving gender balance at senior levels of the Civil Service.’
The CSMB, he said, ‘also monitors actions across departments and offices aimed at increasing the number of women in senior positions.’
It has also asked all departments to consider a range of actions including ‘training for management boards in unconscious bias, development supports such as mentoring, gender balance as a stated business priority and leadership training courses to encompass gender-focused knowledge and supports’.
There are further proposals to assign ‘responsibility for gender and diversity to a member of the management board’.
A less than convinced Ms O’Reilly noted: ‘The Minister’s optimism is astonishing.
‘The Sir Humphreys leading the reform of the Sir Humphreys is hardly a template for radical reform.’
A more optimistic Mr Donohoe noted ‘a study of gender in senior civil service positions in Ireland was published in December 2017 by the ESRI’.
As a result of this, Mr Donohoe said: ‘The CSMB initiated several key actions centrally which are aimed at improving the representation of women at senior level.’
These, he added, include: ‘Developing actions to support women on
‘Equality is higher amongst lower tiers’
maternity leave to remain connected and to be supported on return to progress their career; exploring flexible working arrangements to facilitate staff at senior levels, and exploring the feasibility of introducing jobsharing at senior levels.’
However, Ms O’Reilly said: ‘The figures from the department itself are indicative of how long women will have to wait to equally participate at the top table.’