Review of Ireland's Employment Policy from a Gender Perspective

European comparative data for Ireland reveals important features of the changing situation. Men’s unemployment rates are falling faster than women’s in Ireland. The unemployment rate (25-74) for men has fallen from 15.7% in 2012 to 13.5% in 2013 and 11.6% in 2014. On the contrary women’s unemployment rate (25-74) has dropped only slightly from 9.3% in 2012 to 9.2% in 2013 and 8.2% in 2014. As a result, the gender gap closed from 6.4p.p.to 4.3p.p. to 3.4p.p. in 2014 ranking Ireland 1st in the EU with the widest gender gap in unemployment (25-74). The EU-28 average was 8.8% for men and 9.2% for women in 2014 with a gender gap of -0.4p.p. Ireland stands out with its severe underrepresentation of women in national political structures. Only 16% of those in national parliament and 24% of those in national administration are women compared to EU-28 average of 29% in parliament and 40% in administration, ranking Ireland extremely low at 25th in the national administration and 23rd in the national parliament in 2015. A key reason, it can be argued, for the lack of priority placed on care provision is this chronic lack of representation of women in the decision-making system. One notable change is in the representation of women in national government (senior ministers) that increased from 13% to 27% between 2013 and 3Q2015, a rate that now ranks Ireland 15th with the EU-28 average at 27%.