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Female employment rate close to EU 2010 target

A gender report Women and Men in Ireland, 2006 published by the CSO today examines key differences in the lives of men and women in Ireland.

Employment rates continue to increase for both women and men. The employment rate for women in Ireland was almost 59% in the second quarter of 2006 compared with just over 43% in 1996. This rapid increase means that Ireland is now quite close to the EU 2010 target of 60%. The employment rate for men was over 77%, well above the average EU rate of around 71%.

The report shows that women are under-represented in decision-making structures at both national and regional levels. Only 14% of TDs in Dáil Eireann are women, while they account for just 34% of members of State Boards and under 20% of members of regional and local authorities.

The education and health sectors employed the highest proportion of women, with close to an 80% share of the total at work in these sectors. However, women were not well represented at senior level positions. In the health service, women represented almost 80% of all staff but less than 30% of medical and dental consultants. Similarly, women accounted for 84% of primary school teachers but only 51% of primary school managers.

The early school leavers rate among women aged 18-24 was 9.3%, which was much lower than the male rate of 14.5%. There were higher proportions of girls taking English and European languages at Leaving Certificate higher level in 2005. However, boys had higher rates of participation in technical subjects. Around 95% of Leaving Certificate students taking higher level engineering, construction studies and technical drawing examinations were male. The pattern continued at third level with men accounting for around 80% of graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction.

 

Women's income in 2004 was around two-thirds of men's income. After adjusting for differences in hours worked, women's hourly earnings were around 86% of men's.

 

The proportion of men at risk of poverty in 2005, after pensions and social transfers, was 17.9% compared to 19.9% of women. At risk of poverty rates were considerably lower for employed men and women at 6.6% and 5.4% respectively.

 

Life expectancy for men was around 5 years less than for women in 2003.

 

Editor's note

Women and Men in Ireland, 2006 is available on the CSO web site (www.cso.ie (PDF 395KB) )

The report may be purchased from:
The Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork
Government Publications Sales Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2
or through any bookseller
For further information: contact Gerry Brady (01 498 4201) or Mark Manto (01 498 4204).

Central Statistics Office

13 December 2006

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