A gender report Women and Men in Ireland, 2007 published by the CSO examines key differences in the lives of men and women in Ireland.
The employment rate for women in Ireland was 60.3% in the second quarter of 2007 compared with 45.9% in 1997. This rapid increase means that Ireland already exceeds the EU 2010 target of 60%. The employment rate for men was 77.2%, which was well above the average 2006 EU rate of around 71.6%.
The report shows that women are under-represented in decision-making structures at both national and regional levels. Only 13% of TDs in Dáil Eireann are women, while they account for 34% of members of State Boards, 20% of members of local authorities and just 16% of members of regional authorities.
The education and health sectors employed the highest proportion of women, with around 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 just over 30% of medical and dental consultants. Similarly, women accounted for 84.7% of primary school teachers but only 51% of primary school managers.
The early school leavers rate among women aged 18-24 in 2006 was 8.7%, which was much lower than the male rate of 14.9%. There were higher proportions of girls taking English and European languages at Leaving Certificate higher level in 2007.
However, boys had higher rates of participation in technical subjects. Over 90% 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 85% of graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction.
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