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“WOMEN’S ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT
AND
THE
EUROPE 2020 AGENDA”
AGENDA”
REPORT OF AN
AN EUEU-PRESIDENCY CONFERENCE
ORGANISED IN APRIL 2013
BY
GENDER EQUALITY DIVISION,
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE & EQUALITY
IRELAND
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE
EUROPEAN COMMISSION PROGRESS FUND
The information contained in this publication
does not necessarily reflect the position or
opinion of the European Commission
Throughout the Report
we have tended to use civil titles
rather than academic titles.
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Table of Contents
Chapter
Page
1.
Introduction
6
2.
Opening Session
10
3.
Session 1 More Women in the Workforce – Making Sense for Business
and the Economy
14
Gender Balance in Europe’s Economy –
Keynote Address by Commissioner Andor
34
Session 2 Women Returning to Work – a “Win-Win” for Women
and the Economy
38
Session 3 Challenges for Women in the Workplace – Working Together to
Overcome the Barriers
48
7.
Session 4 Towards the Top – Advancing Women in the Workplace
56
8.
Session 5 Striking Out Alone – Women and Entrepreneurship
66
9.
Closing Session – Overview, including from the Social Partners
74
4.
5.
6.
Appendices
I.
Programme
80
II.
Conference Feedback
82
III.
List of Participants
84
Figures
1.
2.
3.
4.
Proportion of Men and Women who have a Tertiary Degree 2010
by Age Group
15
Employment Rates by Age Group and Gender, Quarterly
from Q1/2007 to Q4/2012
16
Women’s Share in the Labour Force and Senior Management
in the Private Sector 2010
16
Feminisation Rates on Services Sectors
17
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5.
Employers as a Proportion of the Employed by Gender 2010
17
6.
Gender Pay Gap in Earnings for Full Time Employees 2000 and 2010
18
7.
Unpaid work and Female Employment Rates – most recent year available
18
8.
Economic (GDP) Growth through Increased Female Labour Market Participation 19
9.
Circular Benefits of Investing in Gender Equality
21
10.
Unemployment Rate for Men and for Women aged 20 to 64 years since 1997
21
11.
Age and the Gender Pay Gap in the European Union
22
12.
Gender Equality Actions in the European Union
22
13.
Women’s Representation in the EU Workplace – Key Features
23
14.
Lower Labour Participation due to Financial Disincentives
24
15.
Gender Employment Gap for age group 20 – 64 yrs, 2011
26
16.
Inactivity or Part-time Work due to Family Responsibilities 2011
27
17.
Gender Pay Gap 2010
27
18.
Unemployment of men and Women since 2007
29
19.
Secondary and Primary Earners in EU MS and Iceland – Distribution
of Couples by Share of Female Earnings
30
20.
Inactivity Rates Among Women in EU Member States
39
21.
Prevalence of Low Quality Jobs by Gender
40
22.
Full and Part time Labour Market Participation in the Netherlands
40
23.
Outcomes from the Ballyfermot Project
42
24.
Range Training and Development Provided in Bray Project
43
25.
Childcare Provision for Children under 3 compared with Barcelona Targets
50
26.
Childcare Provision for Children aged over 3 to Mandatory school age
compared with Barcelona Targets
50
Barriers to the use of Childcare by Parents
51
27.
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28.
Relation between Employment Rate of Women aged 20 – 49
with youngest child below 6 years and share of children in formal childcare
51
29.
Impact of Childcare on Labour Market Attachment
52
30.
Challenges and Initiatives for Women at Citi
54
31.
Representation of Women at Sodexo
54
32.
Priorities for Diversity and Inclusion and Sodexo
55
33.
Women’s Representation on Corporate Boards
57
34.
Initiatives of the European Commission on Women in Leadership Roles
58
35.
Competencies at Different Management Levels
59
36.
Measures being taken in Selected EU Member States to
Advance Women’s Roles on Corporate Boards
60
37.
The Business Case for Gender Equality as seen by P&G
61
38.
Increase in Female Representation by Grade over Ten Year Period
61
39.
Behavioural Differences by Sex Identified in Procter and Gamble
62
40.
Behavioural Changes to Achieve De Facto Gender Diversity within the Firm
62
41.
Challenges Experienced in Relation to Female Entrepreneurship
68
42.
Benefits of Participating in Going for Growth
69
43.
Outcomes Achieved by Participants on Phase 4 of Going for Growth
69
44.
Outcomes of one Participant in Going for Growth
71
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Chapter 1
Introduction
Europe 2020 Employment targets
In 2010, the European Council adopted the Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Union’s new strategy for
jobs and smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. It included among its five headline targets, including the
aim that
The employment rate of the population aged 20-64 should increase from the current 69% to at least 75%,
including through the greater involvement of women, older workers and the better integration of migrants
in the work force. 1
This target cannot be achieved without a marked increase in women’s labour market participation, as
acknowledged in the new EU Employment Strategy2 and by the European Council. The European
Commission’s conference “Europe and Jobs”3, attended by the Presidents of the European Council,
Parliament and Commission, placed an emphasis on women’s employment, and the benefits to business of
capitalising on the academic and professional credentials and competencies of women in the EU.
At the end of 2012, comparative employment rates for women and for men are 62.3% for women and 75.1%
for men, a gender gap of 12.8%, significantly below the peak data of 62.8% of women and 77.6% of men,
achieved in 20084. In addition, 46 million women in the age group 20 to 64 years are outside the labour
market – neither in employment nor unemployed - compared with a substantially lower figure of 25 million
men. Furthermore, a quarter of in the EU workforce, who have tertiary or higher education, work part-time,
compared with just 7% of men with equivalent educational standards, representing an under-utilisation of
women’s education.
The Europe 2020 Strategy notes that over 80 million people were at risk of poverty even prior to the
economic crisis. At that point, eight per cent of people actually in paid employment did not earn enough to
exceed the poverty threshold, while unemployed people were regarded as being particularly exposed to the
risk of poverty. As a result, paid employment has long been regarded as central to the avoidance of poverty
over the lifetime.
Accordingly, the economic policy impacts of the Europe 2020 Agenda can influence not just the European
economy but also the prosperity of each and every citizen of Europe, something of particular challenge at
this time of economic crisis and uncertainty, and of great relevance to women.
Implementing “Europe 2020”
While the European Council steers the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the Council of
Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Ministers plays a key role in monitoring its
implementation at Member State level, including through peer review.
1
Europe 2020: Page 12
Strasbourg, 18.4.2012 COM(2012) 173 final
3
Jobs 4 Europe: The Employment Policy Conference: Commission, September 2012
4
Eurostat: Employment rate by sex and age group 20-64: end 2012
2
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The Commission also plays a key role through the analysis of the indicators; the preparation of the Annual
Growth Survey/Joint Employment Report and the review of country reports and finally through the
preparation of Country Specific policy Recommendations (CSR) which are based on the Commission’s
analysis of the performance of the individual Member States.
In recent years, a number of the CSRs have made specific reference to issues within Member State which
impact on women’s economic engagement. These tend to reflect more general messages issued to all
Member States by the European Council in relation to the need to develop affordable quality childcare to
support the economic engagement of parents and the need to address taxation systems to ensure that they are
not acting as a disincentive to two income families.
Women’s Economic Independence – a goal of the European Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy
The European Commission’s five year Strategy for Equality between Women and Men 2010 – 2015 also
places a particular emphasis on women’s economic independence, making this issue one of the Strategy’s
five priorities. It notes in particular that
“Getting more women on to the labour market helps counterbalance the effects of a shrinking workingage population, thereby reducing the strain on public finances and social protection systems, widening the
human capital base and raising competitiveness.”5
To advance this priority and link it to Europe 2020, the Commission undertakes to
“Support the promotion of gender equality in the implementation of all aspects and flagship initiatives of
the Europe 2020 strategy, especially as regards definition and implementation of relevant national
measures, through technical support as well as through the Structural Funds… In the context of the
Employment Guidelines and the evaluation of national employment policies, it will monitor closely the
national policies adopted to improve gender equality in the labour market and boost the social inclusion
of women.”
DG Justice of the European Commission also publishes a dedicated annual report which includes an array of
statistics on women’s labour market participation and other parameters relating to the economy and to de
facto gender equality.
A forum to discuss women’s economic engagement and Europe 2020
As part of Ireland’s role in holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Gender
Equality Division of the Department of Justice and Equality organised a major international EU Conference
on ‘Women’s Economic Engagement and the Europe 2020 Agenda’, held in Dublin Castle on 29 and 30
April 2013, receiving generous funding from the European Commission through the European Social Fund
PROGRESS Fund.
5
European Commission : COM(2010) 491 final: p. 4
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The topic under discussion was chosen by the Irish Presidency to build upon previous debate on the
economic case for gender equality including at the Swedish Presidency Conference in 2009 and a
spontaneous discussion among Member States’ gender equality directors at the High Level Group on Gender
Mainstreaming during the Danish Presidency (2012). Although fortuitous, the topic also linked closely with
the over-arching theme of the Irish Presidency which was “Stability, Jobs and Growth”.
Accordingly, this important conference offered an opportunity to address issues concerning women’s
employment potential and how this can be maximised through EU-wide and Member State employment
strategies, specifically within the context of the Europe 2020 Agenda and its implementation mechanisms.
The overall aim of the event was to precipitate long-term concern for, and commitment to, women’s full,
active and equal participation in the labour market, through which they can secure an equitable proportion of
secure, quality employment, as well as a greater representation of top decision-making roles.
Structure of the Conference
The Conference took place over the course of a day and a half. It was structured around five key plenary
sessions, which covered diverse topics such as the importance of encouraging women back into the labour
market; the distinct challenges that women face in the workplace, primarily concerned with childcare; as
well as the career progression patterns of women; and the reality of women’s experience in the realm of
entrepreneurship.
The generous package of PROGRESS funding, together with a contribution from the Irish Exchequer,
enabled the Department of Justice and Equality to invite three participants from each Member State and each
EEA partner and candidate country. The response from Member States was excellent and European
delegates were joined by over 100 Irish delegates drawn from the public and private sectors and civil society.
It also enabled the Irish Presidency to invite a wide range of international experts to complement a team of
Irish speakers, many drawn from multi-national firms located in Ireland which have developed a strong focus
on gender equality issues to maximise the output and well-being of their staff.
Among the speakers were two Irish Government Ministers – Mr Alan Shatter T.D., Minister for Justice,
Equality and Defence and Mr. Richard Bruton T.D., Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation – as well as
Minister of State for Gender Equality Ms. Kathleen Lynch T.D.6
Key overseas speakers included Ms. Algimanta Pabedinskiene, Minister for Social Security and Labour in
Lithuania, the Commissioner for Employment at the European Commission, Mr. László Andor and Mr.
Mikael Gustafsson, Chair of the FEMM Committee of the European Parliament, which deals with Women’s
Rights and Gender Equality. The chairpersons of the two Treaty Committees - the Employment Committee
and the Social Protection Committee also contributed to the debate, while Mr. Willem Adema, Director from
the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) presented insights on recent research on Gender Equality – Employment,
Entrepreneurship and Education.
6
Ms. Lynch has responsibility for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People
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In order to reflect fully the reality of the world of employment and the varied spectrum of the European
labour market, there was a broad mix of speakers from both public and private sectors. The representatives
from the public sphere predominantly focused on research that has been undertaken at EU and national level,
which definitively makes the economic case and the human rights based case for increasing the labour
market participation of women, while the speakers from private industry gave Conference delegates a feel
for the types of initiatives currently being undertaken at organisational level to encourage women back to
work, as well as programmes that have been developed to improve the proportion of women at higher levels
of top decision-making management.
Each session was moderated by either an international or national expert in the particular topic under
discussion, and comprised of between four and five expert speakers on the area of concern. At the conclusion
of each session, Conference delegates were given the opportunity to ask questions of, and put forward their
viewpoints with panel members. This facilitated lively debate, further teased out issues and concerns, and
created much food for thought, which it is hoped will impact on future policies for enhancing and promoting
women’s economic engagement.
Acknowledgements
The Department of Justice and Equality wishes to acknowledge the contribution made to the success of this
event and its DVD and Report by the Gender Equality Division, (Pauline Moreau, Patrick O’Leary, Padraig
Devine, Louise Sandom, Aileen O’Driscoll (our intern), Eileen Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Mooney, Paul Laycock,
Annette Clarke and Therese Hogan) and the EU Logistics Team (John Roycroft, Neville Kenny, Anne
Roche, Eimear Cowan, Fiona Kane, Chris O’Donoghue, Patricia Wiggins, Suzanne Murphy and Fiona
Curtin). Louise Sandom and Aileen O’Driscoll deserve special mention for the lengthy hours of overtime
they contributed in advance of the event while Aileen also undertook the painstaking analysis of the
speakers’ contributions in preparing the first draft of this Report.
The Department also wishes to acknowledge the contribution made by Dr. Daniela Bankier, Head of the
Gender Equality Division, DG Justice in the European Commission and Dr. Kara McGann from IBEC who
assisted in identifying our expert speakers.
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Chapter 2
Opening Session
Setting the scene – Why do we need to talk about women’s economic engagement, specifically in
the context of the Europe 2020 Agenda?
Introduction
In considering gender equality as a human rights issue, it is widely understood that women’s rights are
of greater immediate concern, since, in a wide variety of spheres, including economic and political
decision-making, for instance, women have not, heretofore, been elevated to the same heights as men.
In delving into women’s rights in the economic sphere, it is imperative to recognise the links between
gender equality, economic growth and institutional mechanisms. Those institutional mechanisms,
namely governments, executive bodies, and civil society organisations, need to fully engage, in a
committed and genuine manner, in the drive for a more equitable representation and proportion of
women and men in economic life, at all levels and in all sectors and industries. The impetus to do so
must be doubly driven by a regard for the fact that this is the right thing to do, as well as recognising
the inherent benefits to the economy of a more gender-equal society.
The economic case for gender equality has increasingly been gaining traction in the last number of
years, and is being championed and pushed forward by, among others, those with explicit
responsibility for both employment and gender equality in the European Commission and the
European Parliament. While it is essential that gender equality continues to be framed in terms of a
concern for, predominantly, women’s and girls’ basic fundamental human rights, from an economic
viewpoint, it can also be positioned as creating benefits for the national exchequer that stretch far and
wide.
The European Commission’s current Strategy on Gender Equality points out that
“Inequalities between women and men violate fundamental rights. They also impose a heavy toll
on the economy and result in underutilisation of talent. On the other hand, economic and business
benefits can be gained from enhancing gender equality. In order to achieve smart, sustainable and
inclusive growth, the potential and talent pool of women need to be used more extensively and
more efficiently”.
Setting the scene – the opening Session
The formal opening session of the conference took place in the presence of the two Irish Government
Ministers with responsibility for employment and for equality: Mr. Richard Bruton T.D., Minister for
Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Mr. Alan Shatter, T.D., Minister for Justice, Equality and
Defence.
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They were joined on the podium by Mr. Mikael Gustafsson, Chair of the European Parliament’s
FEMM Committee (on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights) and by Ms. Daniela Bankier, Head of
Gender Equality Division, representing DG Justice, while the session was moderated by Ms. Kathleen
Lynch T.D., Minister of State for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People.
The key speakers participating in the opening session restated the main principles in favour of
increasing women’s labour market participation.
The EPSCO debate
Minister Richard Bruton reminded the delegates of the public policy discussion which he had chaired
at the Employment, Social Protection, Health and Consumers’ Affairs Council (EPSCO) during which
Ministers had been specifically requested to identify policy measures that might be developed to
overcome the obstacles preventing women from participating in the labour market. In their responses,
Ministers agreed that women represent an untapped resource for growth in Europe and female
employment also offers protection against the risk of poverty. They also accepted, however, that
women continue to face barriers to entry into the labour market and entrepreneurship.
Minister Bruton also referred to the narrowing of the gender gap in employment rates for the Europe
2020 target age group – 20 to 64 years – but commented that
“This reduction is not necessarily because of an improvement in the situation of women.
Instead it reflects the stronger impact of the crisis on men due to the sectoral distribution of job
losses. Men have fared very differently to women, losing jobs in greater numbers, remaining
unemployed in greater numbers, and exiting the workforce in larger numbers.”
Minister Bruton also made reference to the small numbers of women who graduate in and are
employed in the STEM7 and ICT sectors.
The benefits of economic independence
Mr. Mikael Gustafsson pointed out that, as well as economic independence being a crucial component
in
“enabling women to make genuine choices and exercise control over their lives, [it also] empowers
them, giving them access to decision-making positions and reducing the risk of poverty and social
exclusion”.
Ms. Bankier noted that the economic engagement of women can contribute to economic growth by
harnessing
“all available talent and by using it effectively”
to the benefit of the labour market.
7
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics
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This is succinctly summed up in a point put forward by the Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and
Defence, Mr. Alan Shatter:
“Women having jobs, and especially better jobs, enables them to be more economically
productive, to have an increased standard of living, to contribute more as tax-payers, to offer a
high standard of education to their children, and to build up pension entitlements to avoid the risk
of poverty in older years. These women increase their countries economic output, and its tax-take,
foster the economic prosperity of the next generation and reduce the risk of their dependency on
the state in their older years. This is a win-win situation for women, for the economy and for
society”.
Educational attainment
A further impetus in the drive for greater participation of women in paid work concerns their very
high level of educational attainment, as evidenced in figures profiling recent university graduates
across the EU. The reality that women are engaged in employment in far fewer numbers than men,
and in addition represent a greater proportion than men of part-time workers is inconsistent, and at
odds, with their educational outcomes. This clearly represents a gross under-utilisation of the
capacities and talents of women in the workforce. Minister of State Ms. Kathleen Lynch T.D.
referred to a truism she had heard at an event organised by her Department , at which one of the key
note speakers had pointed out that
“we employ least those we educate most”.
She argued that this alone should constitute a wake-up call for employers in all fields, spheres, sectors
and industries in the EU.
Existing supports
Ms. Bankier of the European Commission DG JUSTICE commented that the commitment, at
governmental and EU levels, to increasing women’s economic engagement can manifest itself in
many forms, not least in employment legislation, equal pay directives, maternity and paternity
benefits and EU-wide strategies that aim to guide Member States, and encourage the implementation
of gender equality policies, which are developed in conjunction with employment strategies.
However, the Chair of the EP FEMM Committee, Mr. Mikael Gustafsson, raised a concern that, while
the 75 per cent employment target requires an increase in women’s participation in the labour market,
there is no specific mention of objectives focused on women within the Europe 2020 documentation,
nor does it contain any text of a gendered nature. He suggested that the Commission might rectify
this.
Nevertheless, there are many instances of initiatives and economic incentives being rolled out across
the European Union in order to enhance women’s labour market participation, as detailed by Ms.
Daniela Bankier. These include increasing childcare facilities, and removing financial tax
disincentives for second income earners in a household. She urged Member States not to take their
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eye off the ball, and to continue to promote such policies that positively impact on women’s ability to
engage as full members of the workforce.
Final Words of Introduction
Drawing the formal opening session to a close, Minister Lynch pointed out that “the women of
Europe still have a lot more to give”, while she added that
“the time is ripe for a fruitful discussion on the extent to which women can contribute more to
the activity in the key employment goals of the Europe 2020 Agenda… It is timely as there will
be a mid-term review of the Europe 2020 Strategy in the near future, and we would like to see
a greater focus on women’s contribution to that progress”
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Chapter 3
Session 1: More Women in the Workforce – Making Sense for Business and the Economy
The concept for this session
The first formal Session of the Conference was moderated, in part, by Mr. Aongus Hegarty, Irish and
Irish-based Vice-President and General Manager of Dell, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa),
who has been particularly influential in fostering gender equality in his company, and, in part, by
Minister of State Kathleen Lynch.
This session heard of recent research from the OECD published in December 2012 entitled “Closing
the Gender Gap – Act Now” which was a key trigger for this event. An extract from its Executive
Summary presents a strong justification for the focus of the present conference, stating that
“gender equality is not just about economic empowerment. It is a moral imperative. It is about
fairness and equity and includes many political, social and cultural dimensions. It is also a key
factor in self-reported well-being and happiness across the world… Gender inequality means not
only foregoing the important contributions that women make to the economy, but also wasting
years of investment in educating girls and young women. Making the most of the talent pool
ensures that men and women have an equal chance to contribute both at home and in the
workplace, thereby enhancing their well-being and that of society.”
The session also heard from the two relevant Directorates General of the European Commission, DG
EMPL, which has overarching responsibility for employment policy and DG JUST, which has
responsibility, inter alia, for Gender Equality. The Chairs of the two Treaty Committees which report
to the EPSCO Council – the Employment Committee and the Social Protection Committee - also
made contributions, while a further insight from the private sector was delivered by Ms. Avivah
Wittenberg Cox. CEO of consultancy firm “20-First”.
Introduction by Mr. Aongus Hegarty
Introducing the Session, Mr. Aongus Hegarty of Dell thanked the Minister for the invitation to
participate actively in the Conference. He pointed out that diversity starts in schools where it is
important for girls to become involved in sciences and mathematics. He mentioned a targeted
programme which DELL is delivering called “IT is NOT for Geeks.” Mr Hegarty than pointed out
that in DELL, the firm aims to
“treat the diversity element of gender as a key target within our business because we fully
understand that having a more diverse organisation in all respects – culture, background,
experience and gender – makes for a much, much stronger team…
“We use diversity within the lens of reviewing our organisation from succession planning
point of view”
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He said that the company makes every effort to mentor and support talented women not because this
is the right thing to do, but because it is important as a contribution to the success of the company’s
business.
Mr. Willem Adema, OECD: The economic case for more women in the workforce
Mr. Willem Adema has done considerable work linking gender equality issues and economic growth
during his lengthy career at OECD. The OECD published a seminal report entitled “Closing the
Gender Gap, Act Now” in December 2012, offering insights into the key issues of this conference.
Mr Adema opened his contribution by pointing out that, contrary to the misleading perception that
gender equality policy is an expensive luxury and something that can only be implemented and
promoted at times when states have surplus cash, it should be regarded as one of the solutions to aid
recovery from the economic crisis.
He added that the countries of Europe are rapidly ageing, and it is therefore important that we increase
the employment rates of women, as well as (paid) hours they spend working, so that total labour
supply is increased, and is able to support the ageing population, thereby ensuring that that state
pension provision is less of a burden on the national exchequers.
Mr. Willem Adema used a series of statistical tables to make the point that “More Women in the
Workforce Makes Sense for Business and the Economy.” He began by pointing out that gender gaps
in educational attainment have either closed or reversed in OECD countries. Figure 1 below looks at
the percentage of men and women who had tertiary degree in 2010, for two age groups, those aged 25
to 34 years and those aged 55 to 64 years. Fewer than 20 per cent of the older age group across the EU
(EU 21) had tertiary degrees compared with 30 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women in the
younger age group.
FIGURE 1
PROPORTION OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE A TERTIARY DEGREE 2010 BY AGE GROUP8
8
Source: OECD (2012) Education at a Glance
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However, Mr. Adema also pointed out that, despite these gains in educational achievement among
women, gender employment gaps persist, even through the economic crisis, as illustrated in Figure 2
below, which shows that, across the OECD, women’s employment has levelled off for the full
working age population and for younger women.
FIGURE 2
9
EMPLOYMENT RATES BY AGE GROUP AND GENDER, QUARTERLY FROM Q1/2007 TO Q4/2012
In relation to women’s roles on the labour market, Mr. Adema showed that women continue to have
slower career progression, as illustrated in Figure 3. Across the EU, women represent about 45 per
cent of the labour market, but only 30 per cent of senior management positions. He pointed out that a
number of countries such as France which have taken proactive measures to advance women are
closer to 40 per cent and that these positive measures are beginning to be reflected in the outcomes.
FIGURE 3
WOMEN’S SHARES IN THE LABOUR FORCE AND SENIOR MANAGEMENT
10
IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, 2010
Ccc
Mr. Adema then showed evidence from the recent OECD research that certain sectors continue to be
strongly feminised, as illustrated by Figure 4, overleaf, which shows that women are still over-
9
Source: OECD Gender Data Portal, www.oecd.org/gender/data
10
Source: OECD (2012), Closing the Gender Gap, Act Now
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represented in sectors such as “education” and “health and social care” and under-represented in the
service sectors such as “transport” and “finance”.
FIGURE 4
FEMINISATION RATES OF SERVICE ACTIVITIES11
He also presented evidence of the extent to which men are more likely to be employers and
entrepreneurs. Figure 5 shows that women are less than half as likely as men to be employers in
all EU Member States and in the wider OECD. He also pointed out that female entrepreneurs
spend less time on their businesses than do their male counterparts, possibly due to their caring
responsibilities.
FIGURE 5
EMPLOYERS AS A PROPORTION OF THE EMPLOYED BY GENDER 201012
The final research finding in relation to female employment, presented by Mr. Adema, related to
the comparative earnings of men and women – the gender pay gap. The next figure (no. 6 –
overleaf) looks at full-time employees over the ten year time span to 2010 and shows that women
continue to have lower earnings than men. This figure is somewhat limited in its coverage as it
encompasses just 16 EU Member States and 3 further European countries and only includes a
time series for twelve of those countries. Nevertheless, it shows evidence that, in most instances,
the gender pay gap has contracted over time. However the level of contraction varies and in Italy
and France it has actually increased over the ten year period.
FIGURE 6
GENDER PAY GAP IN EARNINGS FOR FULL TIME EMPLOYEES 2000 AND 201013
11
OECD: Op cit
OECD: Op. cit
13
OECD: Op. cit.
12
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Policy issues for consideration by Member States
Mr Adema then pointed out that women are better educated and occupy more highly skilled, better
paid jobs than before. He argues that it would be more efficient if economies and societies made
better use of this through by:
Labour market institutions that allow swift adjustments of work patterns
•
•
•
Combined with family-friendly policies (e.g. childcare)…
Encouraging more equal gender sharing of paid and unpaid work (tax/benefits policy, family
policy).
He argued that it would be more efficient to enable women to remain in the labour force, rather than
to allow them to drop out, and then to try and re-engage them. He commented that childcare policy is
therefore a key factor to female employment and pointed out that
“Clearly, what we have now is a situation that our economies invest in young people, that
women take full advantage, but that in return our labour markets do not take full advantage of
that investment. It would be much more efficient if we could help women to remain in the
labour force, rather than dropping out”.
Mr. Adema argued that men could make an increased contribution to domestic chores. By way of
illustration, he showed Figure 7 below, which shows the amount of unpaid work undertaken by men
and by women and the comparative employment rates for women.
FIGURE 7
UNPAID WORK AND FEMALE EMPLOYMENT RATES RECENT YEARS14
Mr.
Minu te s of unpaid work pe r day
The
50 0figure clearly shows that among the countries with the highest employment rates for women, the
Female : R² = 0.43
Male : R² = 0.2 1
gap between unpaid work undertaken by men and women is narrowest.
40 0
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IRL
EST
SVN NLDGBR NZL
JPN
ESP
HUN FRA
CAN
AUT
SWE
BEL DEU
KO R
NOR
FIN CHN DNK
USA
DNK
P OL
ESP EST SVN USA A US FIN CAN
SW E
DEU NL D
NO R
BEL
GBR
NZL
FRA
IRL
A UT
HUN
PRT
CHN
JPN
KOR
PRT
ITA PO L
30 0
ZAF
20 0
MEX
TUR
10 0
ZA F
ITA
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Wome n employment r ate , %
The employment rates for women are highest in the countries where the commitment to unpaid work
of women and men is narrowest – particularly in the Scandinavian countries.
14
OECD: Op. cit.
- 18 -
Mr. Adema also recommended that governments provide paid employment-protected parental leave
and promote the more equal use of it among parents. He pointed to evidence which suggests that
• extending parental leave entitlements had a small positive effect on the female-to-male
employment ratio but only up to two years of leave; while
• extending paid parental leave is also associated with an increase in the gender pay gap among
full-time workers.
He recommended that Governments encourage fathers to take available parental leave, also by
reserving part of the parental leave entitlement for their exclusive and non-transferable use.
Some measurable examples of the economic benefits of increasing female labour market
engagement
Mr. Adema concluded his presentation by illustrating just two of the forecasts for GDP growth
modelled by the OECD which could be achieved if there were (i) a convergence towards male labour
market participation rates for women and (ii) if there were a convergence towards male intensity in
labour market participation. The full array of models are contained in the OECD’s recent publication
on the topic “Closing the Gender Gap: Act Now.”
The example below shows a graph which presents two contrasting economic scenarios, but the
hypotheses present an improved outcome in each case. The graphs cover the period to 2030.
FIGURE 8
ECONOMIC (GDP) GROWTH THROUGH INCREASED FEMALE LABOUR MARKET PARTICIPATION15
effects of a shrinking working-age population”.
In the United Kingdom (UK), GDP per capita is currently placed at about $31,500 and with no
increase in female labour market participation is likely to increase marginally. If the employment rate
for women were to equal that of men, then a small increase in GDP could be expected over the fifteen
year time span under consideration. Employment rates do not take account of the hours worked and
the second metric on the graph looks at the increase in GDP which would be achievable if women
15
OECD: Op. cit
- 19 -
were to work as many hours as men do. For the UK, this appears from the graph to be about 25 per
cent over the time period. The economic outlook presented for Germany is quite different because of
the forecast contraction of its labour supply due to demographics. In this instance an increase in
female labour market participation will not be enough to bring stability and it will be essential to
increase the intensity of labour market participation of women. Further data are offered in the full
report of the OECD published in December 2012.
Ms. Daniela Bankier, European Commission - DG Just – Tackling Gender Gaps – an Economic
Imperative
Ms Daniela Bankier made the next presentation which took a gender equality perspective on the issue
and argued that equality between women and men is both a fundamental right and an economic
necessity.
She pointed out that the European Commission/European Union had traditionally placed a strong
legal focus on Gender Equality but is also now framing the issue through an economic lens. It was
noteworthy that the most successful economies in Europe are also seen to be the most gender equal
societies. The EU Member States are now under demographic pressures, creating a more urgent
“need to activate all the human resources available in our economy, all our
potential….“Gender equality can contribute to counter-balance the effects of a shrinking
working-age population””
While progress has been made, gaps remain and in order to meet Europe 2020 headline employment
target of 75% employment rate, any actions must involve activating women in labour market, and also
retaining them within the labour market. She stressed that it was important to match people’s skills
with job opportunities, particularly by recognising educational outcomes of women. Stressing this
point she said that
“The educational outcome of girls is above those of boys. We have presently 60% of university
graduates in Europe are women, and we think that it’s very important to offer these women
adequate opportunities on the labour market”
Reiterating comments previously made by the heads of the European Institutions, Ms Bankier
suggested that Gender Equality is not a fair-weather policy, to be implemented and promoted at times
when states have spare cash; rather, it is one of the solutions to aid recovery from the economic crisis.
She offered a graphical representation of the issue, depicted in Figure 9 overleaf, which shows the
linkages between gender equality and the demographic challenge, the challenge of the economic crisis
and the challenge of poverty and social exclusion.
- 20 -
FIGURE 9
CIRCULAR BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN GENDER EQUALITY
Investing in gender equality contributes to…
Recover from the
crisis and boost
growth
Meet the headline
target in employment
Counterbalance the
effects of a shrinking
working-age
population
Matching people’s
skills and job
opportunities
Prevent poverty and
social exclusion
4
Ms. Bankier pointed out that since the mid-1990s, female employment rates have been rising (as
shown in Figure 10 below). Over the same period, women’s employment rate in our major economic
competitor, the United States of America, actually contracted from 69.4 per cent to 65.1 per cent, but
they are still above the current EU level at 62.3 per cent.
FIGURE 10
EMPLOYMENT RATE FOR MEN AND FOR WOMEN AGED 20 TO 64 YEARS SINCE 1997
Ms. Bankier noted that while these data may appear positive, over a third of women “active in the
labour market work part-time, against only 8 per cent of men”. Part-time work can be a help in some
phases of a career, a help in the sense that it can help women and men reconcile work and care
obligations. But, part-time work also has its draw-backs in terms of opportunity and training for
professional advancement or earning pension rights over the years.
Ms. Bankier’s contribution echoed some of the points raised by Mr. Adema in relation to professional
segregation, noting what women were more frequently to be found in the lower paid sectors. She also
noted the strong negative impact of parenthood on women’s career advancement, commenting that
“Women who have children tend to drop out of the labour market for a while, while men who
have children tend to increase their employment rates.”
- 21 -
Ms. Bankier also made an important linkage between pension gaps and a high risk of poverty, noting
that it is important to look at the “evolution of the gender pay gap over the life-cycle”. The pay gap
begins to increase during the ages of 20 and 30 when women typically begin to have children while it
not only never closes again, but gets wider and wider, as shown in Figure 11. She stressed to the
audience that
“The gender pay gap accumulates over the life-cycle …this is translated into a gender pension
gap of about 39 % across Europe and a high risk of poverty among elderly women.”
FIGURE 11
AGE AND THE GENDER PAY GAP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
The Gender Pay Gap remains high (16,2% across the
EU), widens with age…
… and translates in an even wider Gender Pension
Gap (39% across Europe) and high risk of poverty
among elderly women
Concluding her presentation, Ms. Bankier gave the audience an overview of the European
Commission’s work and perspective in relation to gender equality which is summarised in the
following Figure:
FIGURE 12
GENDER EQUALITY ACTIONS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
Gender equality in the EU: a long-lasting engagement
Summarising, Ms. Bankier pointed out that the EU’s collective approach to the achievement of gender
equality includes four key facets with a particular emphasis on: awareness raising through events such
- 22 -
as the European Equal Pay Day; economic and social policy targets, such as are included in the
Country Specific Recommendations which form part of the Europe 2020 Semester; funding to support
childcare and other initiatives under the ESF and European regional Development Fund (ERDF); and
a strong and evolving body of legislation.
Ms Wallis Goelen – DG EMPL – the Employment Policy Approach
Delivery of the Europe 2020 Agenda is overseen by DG EMPL – the Directorate General of the
European Commission with responsibility for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Ms. Wallis
Goelen represented DG EMPL at the conference and offered her DG’s perspectives on women and the
workforce.
She opened by pointing out that the Europe 2020 Strategy aims to be more integrated and
comprehensive that its precursor - the Lisbon Strategy - and she specifically pointed out that
“It seeks few, but comprehensive, understandable targets for our European Union citizens. It is
the reason why the key objective of our Europe 2020 Strategy for growth and employment are
expressed in the form of only five targets, respectively on employment; research and
development; climate change and energy; education; and social exclusion. And it is the reason
why there is no specific target for women anymore. However, it is clearly stated in the Europe
2020 Strategy that the employment rate target, which is of 75% for the population aged
between 20 and 64 cannot be achieved without a marked increase in women’s labour market
participation”
Ms. Goelen offered additional statistical material in relation to women’s position in the workforce in
the following Figure which looks at
•
•
women in part time work
•
segregation, both horizontal and vertical, experienced by women.
the difficulties women apparently experience in making transitions back into employment after
a period of unemployment and
FIGURE 13
WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION IN THE EU WORKFORCE – KEY FEATURES
- 23 -
Ms. Goelen noted that the key employment target of Europe 2020 – an employment rate of 75 per cent
for men and women aged 20 to 64 years can only be achieved if there is a marked increase in
women’s employment rates as male rates have already almost reached capacity. She continued by
pointing out the five important issues for women, which are at the core to explaining the low
participation of women in the labour market:
•
•
•
•
•
Childcare costs;
Financial fiscal disincentives with respect to second earners in a household
Increase employability of women with a focus on investing in their skills
Promote voluntary flexible working
Decreasing long-term unemployment for women by investing in active labour market policies
She reminded conference participants that the necessity for Governments to address the issue of
quality/affordable childcare had been highlighted at the Informal EPSCO16 meeting at Dublin in
February 2013 and that European Ministers for Employment have
“formally underlined the necessity to provide quality, but also affordable childcare supports
for women and to reduce fiscal impediments for second earners to increase women’s labour
market participation… those two issues are considered to be at the very origin of low female
participation on our labour markets.”
Ms. Goelen offered a graphical representation in Figure 14 below which clearly identifies the issue
FIGURE 14
LOWER LABOUR PARTICIPATION DUE TO FINANCIAL DISINCENTIVES
A lower labour participation due to financial
disincentives
• The combination of these parameters might hamper
the expected income gain due to job take up.
Social Europe
Ms. Goelen then elaborated on the numbers of women who are outside the labour market in Europe,
pointing out that they have a huge workforce potential to boost economic growth. This has two key
elements. Firstly, Europe is experiencing an ageing population and decreasing fertility, leading to a
workforce and skills shortage. Therefore women currently detached from the labour market have the
potential to serve as a skilled workforce. The second element to Ms. Goelen’s argument in relation to
the untapped female workforce links to the fact that 60 per cent of university graduates are female.
She argues that paying men and women for their actual educational attainment/skills and valuing their
16
Meeting of EU Employment and Social Protection Ministers
- 24 -
contribution on an equal basis will lead to the recruitment and retention of the best and most talented
staff and enhance opportunities for women.
Quoting from the OECD research, she reminded the audience that a 50 per cent decrease in the gender
gap in the labour force participation rates would lead to an 0.3 per cent increase in the GDP per capita
annual growth rate.
Ms. Goelen pointed to policies currently being delivered by the European Commission including a
programme to match skills supply and skills demand. She joined earlier speakers in emphasising the
challenge of have comparatively few women in the STEM17 industries, pointing out that this issue was
one of attitudes rather than skills. Accordingly, she called on career guidance services to provide
open advice to students on the potential of this field of study and subsequent work.
Referring to the economic downturn, Ms. Goelen pointed out that, while women were less impacted
in the initial stages of the crisis, austerity is now affecting women more harshly than men in that
unemployment is now rising among women, while women are usually over-represented in
employment in the public sectors of Europe, where employment is now contracting. Women are also
experiencing cuts to family allowances.
She is of the view that there is still work to be done in convincing Member States of the importance of
engaging with the issue of women when considering long-term employment. Public employment
services play an important role in positive labour market policies but they need to take cognisance of
the training/skills and up-skilling of women, in particular, and the challenge of childcare provision for
women who need or want to attend training courses. Ms Goelen pointed out that it is important to
encourage women to obtain quality employment and reminded employers that they should be aware
of job descriptions that would deter rather than attract well-qualified women.
Ms. Goelen summarised the three key messages of her contribution as follows:
•
The Europe 2020 75 % employment rate is only achievable if more women come into
employment;
•
Active labour market policies are central to increasing women’s participation in employment;
and
•
“Apart from good policy levers, we need strong, practical support from employers”,
especially when moving from inactivity to activity (i.e. not unemployed, and therefore need
specific outreach strategies to target these women), and from school to work.
Mr. Tom Bevers, Chair, Employment Committee
Mr. Bevers from Belgium is the current Chair of the Employment Committee (EMCO), which is a
Treaty-based Committee, created by a Council Decision in 2000. EMCO plays an important role in
the development of the European Employment Strategy through the preparation of discussions in the
17
Science, technology, engineering and maths
- 25 -
Council each autumn of the employment package: the Employment Guidelines, Joint Employment
Report and Recommendations on the implementation of national employment policies.
Mr. Bevers further clarified this role by explaining that EMCO is empowered to contribute key
messages to the Annual Joint Employment Report which is tabled at the Employment and Social
Protection Council in tandem with the Commission’s Annual Growth Survey. These documents
subsequently feed into the Spring European Council. The second key function of the EMCO
Committee is to participate actively in the surveillance of the Country Specific Recommendations,
prepared by the Commission. EMCO can undertake peer reviews of groups of Member States and
maintains an overview of labour market policies in each Member State in order to fulfill this role.
Mr. Bevers shared three graphs from the Joint Assessment Framework with the audience. The first
(Figure 15 below) shows the gap in employment rates for men and women in each Member State. He
pointed out that while still comparatively high, both Malta (MT) and Greece (EL) had shown
improvements in recent years.
He drew the audience’s attention to the group of countries to the left of the graph and suggested that
while we had in the past referred to the positive Nordic experience of the labour market, this group of
high performing countries was now being joined by the Baltic Member States.
FIGURE 15
The next graph, Figure 16 overleaf , looks at the percentage of the female work force who are in part
time work or are inactive due to family responsibilities. The levels are quite high in some Member
States and the Employment Committee agrees with DG Justice that some attachment to the labour
market, at least at part time level, is better than detachment. Mr Bevers pointed out that the graph
shows that there is still scope for policies to better reconcile work and family life.
- 26 -
FIGURE 16
The third graph in this suite (Figure 17 below) looks at the gender pay gap in EU Member States. In
some instances, countries with a lower employment gap also pay a price by having a high gender pay
gap. Tackling stereotypes, especially in education is very important for addressing both the gender
employment gap and the gender pay gap.
FIGURE 17
Mr. Bevers then outlined the recent work of EMCO in relation to multi-lateral surveillance. In 2012,
twelve recommendations had issued to Member States on gender related issues, and nine of these
related specifically, or inter alia. to childcare. The Implementation Review on previous Country
Specific Recommendations suggested that there had been significant progress in three Member States
– Austria, Germany and Malta – with less progress in others. EMCO is particularly concerned that
some Member States actively encourage women to leave the labour market to take care of children.
Other recommendations which were reviewed included the issue of qualitative attachment to the
labour market, in the Netherlands, while the situation of taxation of dual earner families was also
considered in respect of a number of Member States. Mr. Bevers also told the conference that in
Ireland and in the UK and to a lesser extent in Germany and Austria the effective tax rate for working
women is heavily impacted by the cost of childcare.
Mr. Bevers expressed concern that the Commission had not focused very specifically on gender issues
in its recent documentation, and he then made reference to the Council Conclusions prepared during
- 27 -
the Irish Presidency and to the discussion which had taken place on the labour market attachment of
older women during the Informal meeting of the EPSCO Council in Dublin in February 2013. He
pointed out that the caring issue is even more challenging for this age group, as they are often called
upon to provide elder care as well as grandchild care. He noted the increase in their labour market
attachment, which he attributed in part to the higher levels of educational attainment of the older
population and to changes in pension systems.
He too stressed that there is a need to tap into the full potential of women, particularly in the high
priority growth sectors such as caring and the ICT sectors, again echoing the need to develop STEM
skills. Finally, he made the point that the labour market integration of women cannot be seen as
separate from the overall functioning of the labour market.
He stressed the importance of avoiding the “lump of labour” fallacy which sees work as the product of
the number of jobs and the available working hours which have to be distributed more equally
between women and men. He stressed that overall operation of the labour market and its institutions
together with economic conditions will determine the size of the labour market. He concluded by
pointing out that the better functioning of the labour market and attention to the many issues which
had been identified are needed to ensure both economic recovery and future economic growth.
Mr. Thomas Dominique – Chair of the EU Social Protection Committee
Mr. Thomas Dominique from Luxembourg, currently the chair of the Treaty Committee on Social
Protection was the final formal speaker in this session. He began with a reference to the
unemployment situation in the European Union, pointing out that it is still rising and has reached
unprecedented levels in the Euro area. The overall unemployment rate of the EU is currently at
10.8%, while in the Euro area it reaches 11.9%. Men had fared worse than women during the
downturn (from late 2008 onward). Employment losses in construction and manufacturing were
largely male-dominated. In contrast, some of the few sources of employment growth in recent years
were in female-dominated jobs in the service industry, health, social care, and education.
While female unemployment in the EU was higher than male unemployment at the start of the
downturn, and increased as the downturn progressed, this rate of increase was not as high as male
unemployment. There has been a slower re-absorption of women than men into the labour market
where the signs of recovery have set in. These trends have resulted in a progressive levelling down of
the gender unemployment gap.
However, this apparently more equal outcome for women and men is largely due to a worsening in
the employment situation of both men and women, indeed a little more severe for men than women in
terms of unemployment rates. Furthermore, women and men experienced similar rates of long-term
unemployment. This represents a significant change compared with the situation in 2000 when
women were, on average, much more affected than men (4.8% against 3.5%). The statistics are
summarised in the next figure presented by Mr. Dominique which is depicted overleaf
- 28 -
FIGURE 18
UNEMPLOYMENT OF MEN AND WOMEN SINCE 2007
Social and economic situation
• Rising unemploym ent: 26.3
million in EU 27 (10.8%) – 19
million (11.9%) in Euro area
• Men hit har dest, bringing
their UR to the same level as
female UR
• High L TU: 11.1 million
(4 .6%) working-age people
unemployed for more than 12
months
• Similar LTU rates for
women and men in 201 2
4 .8% female LTU vs.
3 .5% male L TU (2000)
So cial Eur op e
Mr. Dominique then referred to the employment rates for each sex, pointing out that the employment
rate is particularly low for women (62.6% against 75% for men aged 20-64 in 2012). The crisis has
interrupted the gains made across Europe in integrating women in the labour market. Women’s
employment rate was increasing steadily until 2008 when the crisis hit Europe, but it has stagnated
ever since. While the difference between overall women and men’s employment rates is narrowing,
this is not a sign of increasing gender equality but rather it reflects the deteriorating employment
situation of both women and men, and the sharper impact on male employment early on in the crisis.
The gap is closing due to levelling downwards, not because of catch-up.
He also stressed that, in order to reach the overall EU employment rate target of 75% of the Europe
2020 Strategy, it is necessary to increase the labour market participation of women. This is especially
important in the southern Member States, many of which are characterised both by low female
employment rates and low fertility rates. Mr. Dominique told the conference that, despite the
economic downturn, women's inactivity rate has fallen to the 35% mark. Male inactivity rates, in
contrast, have remained relatively stable in the period 2008-2012. The gender gap in these inactivity
rates remains wide despite reducing from 14.2 percentage points in 2008 to 12.6 percentage points in
2012.
Mr. Dominique also referred to the topic of the gender pay gap, pointing out that it is caused by
multiple factors, such as labour market segregation and differences in work patterns. Women spend
less time in employment than their male counterparts, due to taking care of children and/or family
members. They are more likely to work part-time and/or in temporary jobs, and are more likely to exit
early from the labour market after childbearing.
In addition to the gender pay gap, in many Member States, financial disincentives such as tax and
benefit systems combined with excessive childcare costs make it more attractive for the spouse with
relatively lower earnings (who tend in general to be women) to choose between either inactivity or
- 29 -
limited activity. As a result, women may enter or leave the workforce depending on family income
needs.
Income from work tends to be higher for dual-earner couples. During a downturn, these households
are better protected as a second earner can help the family cope with spells of unemployment. This
highlights the importance of women's labour market participation and the value of women’s income in
insuring family members against the risk of poverty.
FIGURE 19
SECONDARY AND PRIMARY EARNERS IN EU MS AND ICELAND - DISTRIBUTION OF COUPLES BY
SHARE OF FEMALE EARNINGS (2009)
The figure above was used by Mr. Dominique to show that women are still much more likely to earn
less than men within the household, in all Member States. If women's activity rate continues to
increase at a similar pace as before the economic downturn, the long-term transition in women’s
income role from second earners to co-primary earners may accelerate.
Mr. Dominique made reference to the issue of pension coverage, which is a key issue in relation to
social protection and to gender equality. Women’s lower lifetime earnings tend to be reflected in
lower pension entitlements. Women pensioners have a higher risk of poverty than men as a
consequence of these gender inequalities; women receive lower pensions than men and often fail to
qualify for benefits.
He told the audience that the SPC's Pensions Adequacy Report highlighted that an important part of
the adequacy challenge is gender specific noting that as women live longer than men, they constitute
close to 2/3 of pensioners but pension outcomes for women are currently significantly lower than for
men. This generally results from gender differences in employment, pay and the duration of working
life.
In some Member States, credits for labour market absence due to maternity and child care, derived
pension rights and survivors' pensions help to mitigate current lower pension outcomes for women.
However, the present trend in pension reforms towards defined-contribution plans in both “pay-as-
- 30 -
you-go” and “pre-funded” schemes as well as a greater role for occupational and personal pensions
tend to be unfavourable for many women unless much greater gender equality is achieved in labour
market participation and in private pension coverage.
He concluded his presentation by outlining some of the key gender specific policy messages
contained in the Social Protection Committee’s Annual Report. While the Committee noted some
encouraging recent trends, including an increasing number of women in the labour market and their
progress in securing better education and training, gender gaps remain in many areas:
•
In the labour market, women are still overrepresented in lower paid sectors, and underrepresented in decision-making positions;
•
•
•
Persistent barriers to achieving a good balance between work, family and private life remain;
Parenthood prevents women from achieving a greater participation in the labour market;
The unequal share of care responsibilities between women and men directly affects women's
pension contributions.
His final words echoed those of the other speakers in the session:
In order to achieve the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the productive potential of
women needs to be used more extensively and more efficiently.
Ms Avivah-Wittenberg Cox CEO 20-First
Ms Wittenberg – Cox was the final speaker in the first session on the business case for increasing
women’s economic engagement. A former banker, she now plays a major role as a leadership
consultant with “20-first” and has worked closely on the advancement of women. She began by
pointing out that there is a broad global opinion that women and feminine styles of management may
offer a significant part of the solution to the present economic downturn and its challenges.
Pointing to a dozen or so studies over the past decade which showed that companies that are gender
balanced in leadership also deliver better performance and better results, Ms. Wittenberg-Cox
identified a number of questions which companies should pose to themselves:
•
Given that 60 per cent of graduates are women, can companies actually call themselves
meritocracies?
•
Given that women outrank men with regard to buying power (80% to 20%), does it make
sense for companies to be directed by a significant majority of men?
She commented that companies are frequently slow to change because of cultural issues. She argued
that to switch from male-dominated leadership styles, practices and processes to the flexible, genderbalanced meritocracies of tomorrow takes leadership in the form of top-down, resolutely courageous,
insistent leaders, usually men, who realise that it is time to gender-balance and who then push the
agenda and drive it through, fairly uncompromisingly. She suggested that these leaders drive change
- 31 -
by focusing, not on the minorities they want to grow, but on the majorities whose attitudes they are
seeking to change.
Ms. Wittenberg Cox expanded, by pointing out that other key issues were “mindsets” and
“systemics”. She argued that, in her experience
“it’s only by adapting and fixing those mind-sets and the processes that have created them
that we actually see re-balancing.”
She expressed the view that the problem is less about a pay gap or the ‘glass ceiling’, and more about
retention and promotion issues for the female work force. There is evidence that women and men
enter companies at equivalent levels and in equivalent numbers, but that women become blocked and
start dropping at almost every promotion level – often from the very first levels. She referred to the
idea of
“gender asbestos in the companies’ - cultures and walls that have not yet been removed – an
asbestos that is tenacious, long-standing and hard to change.”
Ms. Wittenberg Cox referred to the need for
“exceedingly proactive managements to address the issue – not by focusing on women, and
women’s programme - but by focusing on all managers and getting them to” flexibilise”,
recognise and embrace different styles.”
She concluded by commenting that multi-nationals facing a multiplicity of challenges, which she
identified as the four W’s, all have an impact on how economies / companies respond to factors in
both society and the world in current times. These are
•
Web
•
Women; “the massive arrival of women into both the labour force and the consumer base is
an adaptation that will take some time, but that the best organisations/companies are already
well on their way to doing”
•
Weather (i.e. climate challenges) and
•
World (i.e. global economy, divided into developing and developed);
She concluded with a comment that the extraordinarily fast shift from developed to emerging markets
is beyond belief in its speed and noted that, “as these middle classes rise all around the world, the
power of women, as customers and talent, is rising in direct correlation” Accordingly she made the
point that
“Smart companies re-position the gender issue as an enormous business opportunity; I think
countries need to do the same”
- 32 -
Open Discussion
Each session of the conference concluded with an opportunity for participants to ask questions or
comment.
The first question asked “How does Gender Equality encourage commercial success?” and Mr.
Aongus Hegarty of DELL commented that diversity within the workforce brings a more rounded
organisation; and ensures that products being developed accurately resonate in the broader economy
/society.
The next contributor from among the participants raised the issue of Gender Mainstreaming,
commenting that it is important that the focus is maintained on the system, and the structures, rather
than the women. She then asked . How can we revive Gender Mainstreaming as a live strategy?
Ms. Wittenberg-Cox responded noting that leaders need to eliminate the word ‘women’; instead we
need to talk about talent, leadership, customers etc. She pointed to the discussions of quotas
regarding Corporate Boards, commenting that the proposals really guarantee a minimum percentage
of representation of either sex, and therefore, there is a need to stop talking about it being “women”.
It’s about fairness, not women, she argued.
Mr. Bevers also commented on gender mainstreaming, noting that well-functioning active labour
market policies engage all workers (including migrant workers, male and female.)
The final question from the participants asked “What are the three most important things for
promoting/improving the position of women in leadership? Daniela Bankier from the European
Commission told the conference that the Commission has proposed formally binding Directive
regarding quota on supervisory boards of the largest European Companies. But, legislation is not
everything; it must be embedded in comprehensive policies, including for example:
Reconciliation of work and family life
•
•
•
Encouraging men to take up caring responsibilities
Encouraging men to be allies / supporters of gender equality
A final comment came from Ms. Wallis Goelen of DG Empl who pointed out the double paradox that
the European Union is unable to fill vacant roles because of skills shortfall, while at the same time
there is massive unemployment. She reflected again on the deficit whereby women are often
graduating in STEM subjects, but not taking up roles in the industry in large enough numbers.
.
- 33 -
Chapter 4
Gender balance in Europe's economy
Keynote address by Mr László Andor,
Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission
Introduction
Following the first technical Session, reported in chapter 3, the conference was joined by Mr. Laszló
Andor, the European Employment Commissioner who delivered the keynote address. The text of his
address is quoted in full.
Opening
“I am honoured to be with you here today to discuss the role of women in the economy and how the
policies for equality between men and women are needed in Europe, specifically in this time of crisis.
“I can assure you that gender equality remains high on the agenda of the European Commission.
Rightly so, as important gender gaps persist with regard to labour market participation and
progress.”
Gender gap with regard to labour market participation
“Equality between women and men is not only a question of fairness, but also an economic objective.
In fact, increasing women’s employment is crucial to ensure that the EU can achieve its goals set out
in the Europe 2020 Strategy: smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. One objective is that 75% of
the working-age population shall participate in the labour market by 2020.
“For this to happen, women's participation in the labour market must indeed significantly increase.
In all Member States women employment rates are lower than those for men - with big variations
across the EU. In the EU27 as a whole, the employment rate for men was 75% in 2011, while for
women it was only 62.3% in the same year. In other words: the employment target is already met –
but only for men. Moreover, while on average 1 man out of 10 worked part-time, the average for
women was 3 out of 10.”
Gender gap with regard to labour market progress
“Over the past period, the gender gap in employment, unemployment, wages and poverty has
decreased. However this is mainly a consequence of the overall lower performance of our economies
and labour markets due to the crisis.
“It is also connected to the persisting sectoral segregation in the labour market between women and
men. During the first years of the crisis, labour market segregation effectively sheltered women’s
employment, labour market activity and pay, given that the services sector in which women are
overrepresented was less affected than for instance manufacturing and construction where the
workforce is predominantly male. Between 2008 and 2011, male employment suffered a loss of over 4
million, while the number of employed women decreased by less than half a million.
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“A Commission expert group has examined the impact of the economic crisis on the situation of
women and men and on gender equality policies. The findings, published in November 2012, suggest
that the specific impact of fiscal consolidation on gender equality varies considerably among
countries. While in some countries the impact is modest and not necessarily harming gender equality
objectives, in others considerable retrenchment in employment, social transfers and social services
may be rolling back past progress.
“It also concluded that disparities in gender equality within Europe may widen back as a
consequence of the crisis and fiscal consolidation. Statistics show that austerity measures have a
relative larger effect on women, as they use to a larger extent transfers and public services.
Therefore, reductions of care-related facilities or allowances, the cuts in housing benefits or family
benefits can disproportionately affect women. The shrinking availability and affordability of care
services, childcare in particular, creates difficulties reconciling work and family life, limiting the
possibilities for women to work.
“And those women who work still earn considerably less in average hourly earnings, and are
concentrated in jobs that pay less, such as in the public sectors that are either being downsized or
suffering wage freezes. These gaps in terms of women's participation and progress in the labour
market are problematic, not only in terms of gender equality, but also in economic and social terms.
“Women face a higher risk of poverty, in particular at pensionable age. Moreover, since women are
increasingly highly qualified, even surpassing men in educational achievements, their low labour
market participation and underemployment represent a waste of human capital.”
Examples in terms of policy-making
“After having painted this rather grey picture, the question arises what can be done to improve the
situation and how can the European Commission help? It is clear that our first task is to overcome
the crisis. This means that the economic and financial situation should be improved. And, the
employment and social aspects need to be addressed with the same determination.
“The functioning of our labour markets is at the core of our economies. This is why the Commission
presented last year an employment package on a job-rich recovery. The package pays a particular
attention to gender equality and calls for:
•
•
•
providing equal pay,
•
optimizing the duration of maternity and parental leave.
adequate childcare,
eliminating all discrimination and tax-benefit disincentives that discourage female
participation, and
“The crisis has also increased the urgency to reform our social systems. These reforms should be
undertaken in such a manner as to improve performance and reduce inequalities, including those
between men and women.
- 35 -
“The Commission has provided guidance on these reforms in the Social Investment Package adopted
last February. The basic principle is that Member States' social policies need to learn from the best
performing European welfare states, to be simpler, to adopt a life-cycle approach, and to work more
coherently against gender inequalities. The Package also consists of a Recommendation on child
poverty. The Recommendation calls on Member States to provide accessible quality early childhood
education and care services in view of increasing female employment on a full-time and part-time
basis – as well as tackling childhood disadvantage at an early stage.
“Finally, the Commission has published other social policy guidance, such as the White Paper on
Pensions in 2012, setting out a policy framework to help Member States ensure adequate, safe and
sustainable pensions. The White Paper stressed that equalising pensionable ages for women and men
can make a significant contribution to raising the labour force participation of older workers and
contribute to improving income for women.
“The specific guidance set out in the Employment Package, the Social Investment Package and the
White Paper on Pensions fits into the Commission's commitments on gender equality as described in
its Strategy for Equality between Women and Men. This is the European Commission's work program
for the period 2010-2015 to promote gender equality. It is based on six priorities:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Economic independence for women;
Equal pay;
Equality in decision-making;
Dignity, integrity and ending gender-based violence,
Promoting gender equality beyond the EU,
Integrate gender mainstreaming in all EU policies.
“The Commission is monitoring the situation in the different Member States as regards these
priorities in an annual report, called "Progress on Equality between Women and Men". This analysis
illustrates how gender issues should be addressed notably in the Europe 2020 Strategy and in the
European semester.
“Already, in the last two years, Country-Specific Recommendations have sought to improve gender
equality in areas such as providing affordable and adequate childcare services, removing financial
disincentives to work, reducing the gender pay gap, and harmonising the pension ages and pension
rights for men and women.”
Examples in terms of use of funding
“The EU not only assists the Member States with policy guidance and recommendations. EU funds,
and in particular the European Social Fund, bring a strong added value to the promotion of gender
equality in the Member States. A thorough evaluation conducted in 2010 concluded that the ESF
played a key role in making most Member States aware of gender equality as a field for active policy
action, creating and preserving a space for gender equality.
“Let me quote some examples... In 2012 I visited an ESF-financed project near to Rome. There a
company launched an initiative to improve the working condition through organizational changes in
- 36 -
order to improve work processes and to support teleworking. They aim to promote work-life balance
and to reduce stress at workplace.
“The "Better future for women" project in Romania, aims at creating chances and changing attitudes
to women. It promotes a more active role for disadvantaged women in their local economies by
helping them set up and manage their own businesses and associations. Four thousand women
participated to this three-year project.
“The Commission's proposal for the next ESF programming period contains important elements on
gender mainstreaming. The new ESF Regulation also foresees that Member States implement specific
actions aiming at gender equality. In this respect, we need to give due importance to gender equality
concerns when drafting the Partnership Contract and the Operational Programmes. This should be
done in a dialogue with the Commission services.
“At a smaller scale, the current PROGRESS programme is also important. Within its framework a
number of exemplary projects have been funded to test new approaches and Member States' policy
responses, notably on the role of women in the economy and how gender issues should be taken into
account when designing the responses to the economic crisis.
Addressing the gender gap as regards promotion – quotas
“Finally, I would like to highlight the Commission's initiatives to ensure progress in women's
involvement in political and economic decision making processes. Women are under-represented in
the decision-making process, both in parliaments and national governments and on management
boards of large companies, despite making up half of the workforce and more than half of new
university graduates in the EU.
“On the political level, the Commission's Women's Charter reaffirmed its commitment to pursue the
fairer representation of women and men in positions of power in public life and the economy. In the
Strategy for Equality between Women and Men, we have also committed ourselves to improve the
gender balance within the Commission, and promote greater participation of women in European
Parliament elections.
“On the economic level, to address the under-representation of women in management positions in
companies, the Commission has proposed legislation which sets a target of appointing women to at
least 40% of non-executive board-member positions in publicly listed companies by 2020.
“A European Network to Promote Women’s Entrepreneurship (WES) exists since 2000 where
members provide advice, support, information and contacts for female entrepreneurs in 31 European
countries.”
Conclusion
“To conclude, equality between women and men is a fundamental value of the EU, which must not be
jeopardized by the economic crisis. The European Commission will continue to promote gender
equality, to monitor the situation and propose concrete solutions to improve the situation.
“I very much look forward to hearing your insights and ideas. Thank you for your attention.”
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Chapter 5
Session 2: Women Returning to Work – A “Win-Win” for Women and for the Economy
Introduction
European Parliament FEMM Committee chair Mr. Mikael Gustafsson, who moderated this session,
opened the discussion by acknowledging that many women who leave the labour market for caring
reasons (childcare; elder care and the care of other dependents) often wish to return to the workforce
and into paid employment, which he recognised as a benefit to women, society and the economy.
Also contributing to this session were Ms. Erika Mezger of Eurofound; Ms. Antia Wiersma from the
Dutch women’s gender equality institute Atria; Ms. Dolores James from the Dublin-based
Ballyfermot IT programme ‘Women’s Way to Work’ and Ms. Jennifer D’Arcy from the Bray Area
(IE) Partnership initiative ELLE, both of whom had managed labour market activation initiatives
under the ESF supported Equality for Women Measure; and Ms. Rachel Mooney of Vodafone.
Overview
During this session, a number of issues were raised, especially concerning inactivity rates; job quality;
part-time work; women returning to work and re-engagement training; women’s self-confidence and
ambition. Of particular interest and highly enlightening were two case studies offered up by Ms.
James and Ms. D’Arcy, which demonstrated practical and real-life examples of programmes and
efforts underway to encourage women back into the workforce. At the heart of the session’s theme
was the impact of economic engagement on women’s lives.
As Ms. Wiersma pointed out, it is important to look beyond the employment rate figures and to
examine how women’s involvement in paid work is translating into economic independence. The
Dutch situation provides one such example. Despite having some of the highest rates of female
employment in the EU, only 52% of women in the Netherlands are deemed to be economically
independent, with the remaining 48% financially dependent on either partners or state assistance. The
reasons for this vary, and include poor educational attainment, illness and disability, as well as
working part-time in order to care for family and relatives.
In a broader vein, however, women returning to the workforce, in whatever capacity has been seen to
have a positive ripple-effect throughout society; something raised by Ms. James, who has witnessed
the transformative effect on the families and communities of women who re-engage with the labour
market. This in turn benefits the local economies, who are beneficiaries of the increased disposable
income of these women.
Inactivity Rates – views of EUROFOUND
Ms. Erika Mezger from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions (EUROFOUND) presented the chart overleaf which looks at levels of inactivity among
women in the 27 Member States:
- 38 -
FIGURE 20
INACTIVITY RATES AMONG WOMEN IN EU MEMBER STATES
Inactivity rates
Source: 3rd
European
Quality of
Life
Survey
2
She commented that
“We have, based on our European Quality of Life Survey from 2011, huge so-called
inactivity rates of women in Europe”
She went on to explain that the scale and variation concerning the rates of economic inactivity of
women across the EU contributes to the particular challenge facing governments in increasing
women’s labour market participation. It shows the challenge facing Member States if they are to
reach the Europe 2020 target of 75% employment rate. At the lower end of the scale, Sweden shows
inactivity rates of about 23%, while, at the other end of the scale, Malta demonstrates the highest
percentages, with over 55% of women of working-age not actively engaged in the labour market.
The EU average stands at a not insignificant 35%, meaning that over one-third of working-age women
are not in paid employment. The alarming nature of these figures appears somewhat diluted when
considering the proportion of those women who are raising their hands as being ‘interested’ and
would like to work. Examining the EU average, 24% out of 35% of women who are inactive would
like to be working.
For the remaining women of working age across the European Union who claim to not be interested
in working, Ms. Mezger suggested that it would be worth investigating those cases further, and
teasing out the reasons for their position. Potentially, they may not be searching for work because they
believe it is incompatible with their domestic and caring obligations. On this note, there is an
important distinction to be made between women who freely choose to remain at home to care for
children, and those women who make the ‘choice’ to do so because it is financially unfeasible to
return to work, as a result of the burden of high childcare costs.
Job Quality
“Overall in Europe, we have 20% low quality jobs” – Erika Mezger, Eurofound
Ms. Mezger then referred to women who do wish to return to the labour market and pointed to
concerns about the quality of jobs on offer. The quality of work is measured against four indicators:
- 39 -
earnings and pay; prospects and working time, and including flexibility, which concerns intrinsic job
quality, referring to an employees ability to use discretion, as well as issues of physical environment
and work intensity.
FIGURE 21
PREVALENCE OF LOW QUALITY JOBS BY GENDER
Percentage of individuals in low quality jobs, by gender
Source: 5th European Working Conditions Survey
4
The figure above shows that out of the EU-27, in 14 Member States women hold a higher proportion
than men of low quality jobs. In four countries, this is fairly evenly balanced between both genders,
and in 9 countries more men than women are in low quality employment. The discrepancy between
the genders is far greater in countries where women outnumber men in low quality jobs. Especially
affected by this trend are Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Spain. While it is, of
course, desirable that neither women nor men would be in low quality jobs in any kind of significant
numbers, it is particularly worrying that women are disproportionately impacted by this.
Consequently, due regard should be given to the underlying causes that explain the clustering of
women in jobs of low quality.
Part-Time Working – experience from the Netherlands
Ms. Antia Wiersma from Atria, the Netherlands Institute for Gender Equality Research, spoke at
length about part-time working, which is a significant issue in that country.
FIGURE 22
FULL AND PART TIME LABOUR MARKET PARTICIPATION IN THE NETHERLANDS
Facts & Figures
Labour Market Participation in 2012*
Men (20-65 yrs)
79%
full time
81%
Women (20-65 yrs)
65%
full time
26%
(Average percentage of labour market participation of women in Europe is 58.5)
*At least 12 hours per week employed
- 40 -
As previously mentioned, and as shown in the chart on the previous page, the Netherlands is in the top
three countries in the EU, with respect to women’s labour market participation, having reached 65%.
However, women work far few hours than men. Only 26% of women in paid employment work on a
full-time basis.
While part-time working has implications for economic dependence and, as discussed in the previous
session, the gender pension gap, the Dutch experience suggests that it is not necessarily incompatible
with career progression. This, however, varies from employment sector to sector. Although there were
still relatively few women in management and senior positions in 2011, the not-for-profit sector, nonprofit sector and public employment sectors were all more favourable for women in top jobs.
She pointed out that
“The large difference between the corporate sector and the not-for-profit, non-profit sector can
largely be attributed to the possibility to work part-time in these first sectors”
This is likely to be directly linked to the availability of flexible working and part-time arrangements,
which enable women to cut-back on work commitments for periods during their career, without it
being detrimental to their overall career progression.
Some experiences of labour market activation projects in Ireland
The conference heard from two Irish women who had delivered projects which were part funded by
the European Social Fund under the Equality for Women Measure. Each of these projects was
eligible for funding of up to €50,000 per annum, to engage with women who were detached from the
labour market. The purpose of the initiative was to offer developmental and training skills to enable
the women to enter into employment or into mainstream education and training. Participants are often
from disadvantaged communities.
Case Study One: Ballyfermot IT ‘Women’s Way to Work Programme’
“The Women’s Way to Work Programme not only provided training in accredited IT skills but
also included training in relation to the personal and social skills necessary for entry into the
workforce” – Dolores James
Dolores James, the Centre Manager explained that the Ballyfermot IT Centre was established in 1999
in response to an identified need for local IT training. It is a community service programme, which
supports community businesses to deliver local services in their communities and to create
employment opportunities for the local population. The Centre currently employs a full-time manager
and three full-time trainers, all of which are past students of the centre. The staff of Ballyfermot IT
Centre deliver onsite IT training to approximately 600 people per year. The aim of the centre is to
engage, train and up-skill people who are generally overlooked by mainstream education or training
programmes. Services are provided to some of the most marginalised and socially excluded groups in
society.
- 41 -
The “Women’s Way to Work Programme” was developed in 2010 under the ESF funded Equality for
Women Measure. The programme has targeted women who were unemployed, including those who
are not in receipt of any social welfare payment, such as married women whose husbands are
working, or those who required skills in order to successfully enter or re-enter the labour market. The
programme has been delivered to 167 women from across the greater Dublin area.
Ms. James gave a detailed account of the wide range of courses covered by the programme schedule,
the effect it had on the women who undertook to complete the courses, and the impact on their future
prospects and career ambitions. Specifically, experience had shown that it was vitally important to
address self-esteem and self-confidence issues among the women participants, to complement the IT
related courses. This focus took the form of mock interviews, role play scenarios and team building
exercises. The women also received one to one personalised support. The IT element of the training
included computer literacy, office procedures and ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence). The
diagram below shows the outcomes for the participants.
FIGURE 23
OUTCOMES FROM BALLYFERMOT PROJECT
Programme Outcomes
∗ 80% of Women Achieved
Certification
∗ 23% of Women Progressed to
Employment
∗ 20% of Women Progressed to
Further Education
The “Women’s Way to Work Programme” has yielded impressive results, and is expected to show
greater gains in the areas of progression into employment, as well as further education when the long
term impact of the programme will be evaluated in November 2013. Ms James pointed out that
“Participating in the mock interviews really boosted confidence and alleviated any fears and
apprehensions that participants had in relation to attending an interview. Many of the women
also realised that the skills they use in everyday life were transferable and useful within the
workforce.”
Case Study Two: Bray Area Partnership
“Low confidence and self-esteem is such a crucially important area, and I think that has been a
common finding throughout all of the programmes … this is still a big barrier to women’s reentry [into the labour market]” – Jennifer D’Arcy
Jennifer D’Arcy the project manager presented the ELLE programme which was established by Bray
Area Partnership located in the greater Dublin area, albeit in County Wicklow. The Bray Area
Partnership works to tackle disadvantage and social exclusion, to increase equality of access to
information, education, training and employment for marginalised people and groups, and to empower
local people and communities. ELLE stands for ‘Education and Life-long Learning and Employment
- 42 -
for Women’. The ELLE project was set-up initially in July 2011 with the aim of engaging with
women who are experiencing multiple forms of disadvantage, and who are most distant from
economic activity, and to provide them with options to participate in pre-development and accredited
courses in order to facilitate their progression into further education and employment. To date, 147
women have participated in the programme.
Outreach services proved to be vitally important in specifically targeting women who would not have
been proactively searching out training supports with a view to re-engaging with the labour market.
Strategies employed in the outreach element of the programme included targeting housing estates
suffering from high deprivation and disadvantage. This tactic involved cold-calling to households and
distributing information and also making contact with women through local community services, as
well as the schools system, which facilitated access to women in the community. Over 950 women
have been approached and informed of the initiative.
FIGURE 24
RANGE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROVIDED IN BRAY PROJECT
Courses:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Basic Computers – FETAC Level 3
IT – FETAC Level 4
Career Coaching
ECDL (Full)
Exploring Options
CV Preparation and Interview Skills
Considering Self Employment
Women Into Business
Budgeting and Nutrition
Social and Personal Development Programme for Women with
Disabilities
In addition to courses in IT skills and career coaching, ELLE offers pre-development, or ‘taster’
sessions. For example, budgeting and nutrition programmes were run as a way to re-integrate women
into a group learning environment without being overwhelming to them. This was for the specific
benefit of women who were at that point very distant from any education or economic engagement or
activity. According to Ms. D’Arcy, it was a very successful tool in getting women to re-engage and
speak to each other, and grow in self-assuredness and confidence. Other aspects of the programme
include needs identification and activation, involving individual and personalised learning plans.
The ELLE programme uncovered a particular group of women in the local area who are highly
educated, and had been well employed but for whom a gap of 5-6 years away from the labour market
had a detrimental impact on their self-confidence. These women benefitted greatly from career
coaching, which included job searching, CV preparation and interview skills.
In the last year, a pilot programme has begun to focus on women with disabilities, and this entails a
social and personal development programme for these women. Self-development is enhanced through
the medium of art, drama, play and role play, interview skills and job preparation.
Ms. D’Arcy set out the key findings that have emerged in the course of running the programme.
Especially noteworthy was the desire amongst participants to advance and progress within and from
- 43 -
the courses undertaken. This is testament to the long-term and far-reaching impact to which a short
term support can lead. Highlighted also is the importance of the complementary nature of other
programmes running in conjunction and in partnership with local social partners.
A Private Sector Perspective
“Don’t forget about the men. They’re really valuable when you’re trying to improve your
gender balance” – Rachel Mooney, Vodafone
Ms. Rachel Mooney, HR manager of Vodafone Ireland told the meeting that, at present, the gender
balance in her company employee profile is 50/50, with women occupying 52 per cent of middle
management posts and 35 per cent of senior management posts. However, there is still a belief that
there is a lot more to be done to achieve a better balance.
She then presented six statements to the conference for the consideration of participants.
•
Stop defending position of need for gender-balance; put the question back on those who are
resistant and ask why they wouldn’t want gender-balance.
•
•
•
It’s not HR’s problem. It’s everyone else’s problem, particularly in relation to leadership.
•
Don’t worry about ‘programmes’ so much, but concentrate on climate and culture within the
organisation; “what kind of environment do you have? And what sort of behaviour is ok?”
•
“Don’t forget about the men. They’re really valuable when you’re trying to improve your
gender balance”
Know your audience – If they are engaged by a target, then give them one
Consider using performance management as a tool “We did a lot around performance reward
based on evidence, and it has had a disproportionate impact on women”
Ms. Mooney told the Conference that Leadership has been key in asking the question ‘how do I get
more women into my team’ and to driving change. She pointed to the “ preoccupation at the senior
level, and the energy that they put around trying to answer that question is driving lots of activity and
change. I don’t think anyone has come up with the answer, but the fact that the question is being
asked has made a big difference.”
She pointed out that progress can be measured as “achieved” when it is no longer necessary to justify
the drive for gender equality. She then recounted how the promotion policy within Vodafone Ireland
had been amended to remove politicking. Promotion is now based exclusively on merit and
performance. The levelled playing field has enabled people, regardless of gender, to be recognised
and promoted. This was also assisted by reducing hierarchy, and increasing access to senior
managers, resulting in a positive impact on problem-solving and innovation, as well as
communication.
Finally Ms Mooney outlined the three targeted programmes within Vodafone to support women
- 44 -
•
Women Returning to Technology Programme – breaking down barriers and tackle issue of
confidence
•
•
Women’s Network – focused on driving engagement with customers
Graduate Programme – 50/50 gender balance sought
She concluded by pointing to increasing evidence that companies are beginning to wake up to the
business potential of a more engaged female workforce, of a need to encourage and support women in
returning to the labour market, and of the value to be extracted from a greater gender balance among
employees.
Open discussion
The first question from the participants related to the revisions to the performance management
system outlined by the speaker from Vodafone, who replied that the revision had increased
transparency and the measurement of goals. A significant investment on the part of the company
meant that each employee now has a very clear indication of his or her goals and objectives for the
coming year and these are more openly measurable.
A further question asked her about linkages between the performance appraisal system and the
gendered care burden and she replied by pointing out that their female work force is reasonably
privileged, in terms of education and earnings so that the care burden does not impact them hugely, in
that they largely have the resources to manage that burden. A survey of staff revealed that a very
small proportion of their workforce identified themselves as having a significant care burden. There is
flexibility surrounding how employees deliver their targets and reach the objectives/tasks set for them
The European Women’s Lobby commented on the issue of care, pointing out that it is a key barrier to
women’s access and equal participation with men in the labour market. It has become an additional
challenge given the cutbacks in childcare provision as an outcome of the recession across Europe.
She also argued that it is not enough for companies to simply offer flexible working times, pointing
out that “Care is our collective responsibility, and we really need to see how can we address this to
ensure that women have equal access the labour market, and equal economic independence”.
Another question was addressed to the two Irish project managers. They were asked if the issue of
Violence against Women and in particular domestic violence arose as an issue for project
participants, and if yes how did it emerge and how was it addressed? The questioner pointed out that
in the Global South, it has been shown that if GBV is not tackled, it undermines the success of such
training programmes. This is important in the context that women are profoundly affected by
violence, and it can limit how much they can participate in the labour market.
The projects responded separately, noting in the one case that it did sometimes emerge as an issue and
that the work of the project is guided in this regard by a number of local support services. Violence
had not emerged as an issue for the second project.
- 45 -
A further question asked “To what extent the social welfare system can be a barrier / hindrance to
women participating in the labour market? Is it a barrier or a support to women who are
economically inactive?”
The two Irish project managers responded to this question. One pointed out that the financial
entitlement to social welfare can sometimes act as a deterrent in a woman’s decision to go back into
the labour market. In her experience a project having close linkages with local social welfare offices
has been useful and has helped to dispel any myths and ensure women know their rights to various
entitlements and payments.
She also pointed to a further issue worthy of consideration which is that many women are not actually
entitled to social welfare benefits or other payments and may well be precluded from applying to take
part in a labour market activation measure which is targeted at the unemployed, meaning that there is
no easy way for women who want to return to the labour market to access state-provided training.
The second Irish project manager agreed with many of the points made by her colleague and pointed
out that many of the women coming through the programme are likely to secure employment in low
to middle earning jobs. There can be an issue when women are deciding whether to go back to work,
or remain out of work. They often discover that it is more financially beneficial to stay out of work,
because they would lose too many entitlements. She pointed out that ultimately it is desirable “that
women return to the work force, because the ripple effect on the family and the community with
people out working – with men and women out working – it gives their children and their community
a work ethic, and that’s good all round.”
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- 47 -
Chapter 6
Session 3: Challenges for Women in the Workplace – Working Together to Overcome the
Barriers
Introduction
This session addressed the barriers which continue to impact upon women in the workplace.
Ms. Renee Dempsey, Director Elect of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, moderated
the session, She opened by emphasising the need to continue to keep equality in the workplace firmly
on the agenda. She called on all in attendance to keep reminding upcoming generations of the
necessity of equality employment legislation, and how beneficial and important it is for working
women and for broader society.
Presentations to the session were made by Professsor Francesca Bettio from the University of Siena;
Ms. Muriel Bissières of DG Justice at the European Commission; Ms. Cecilia Ronan of the financial
organisation Citi Ireland and Ms. Margot Slattery of the multinational food services company Sodexo.
Speakers addressed the specific challenges that women face in the workplace, and in the labour
market at large, as well as offering actions that are being taken to overcome these challenges and
barriers.
Challenges for Women in the Workplace – sectoral segregation
“With austerity, there is a retrenchment in care infrastructure, be it child care or elderly care”
– Francesca Bettio, University of Siena
The challenges facing women in the workplace specifically, and also in the wider context of the
workforce are manifold. They include labour market segregation; the second-earner dilemma; the
issue of care obligations; promotional challenges; and liquidity, flexibility and mobility.
Ms. Bettio identified labour market segregation, or sex typing of occupations as a long-standing
challenge in women’s economic participation. With the downturn in Europe’s economies, sexstereotyping of labour protected many women from the initial job losses felt in predominantly maledominated industries. Yet, despite this, sectoral gender segregation has always constituted a problem
for women, and is of particular relevance now because it is closely linked with the quantity and
quality of employment for the future, at a time when the economy recovers.
Ms. Bettio predicted that women will be far more negatively impacted by contracting sectors in the
coming years – presumably those in services and retail, while also not benefitting from predicted
growth sectors. She identified both the green sector (environmentally friendly employment) and the
white sector (health and personal caring) as two expanding sectors.
- 48 -
She also pointed to statistics which estimate that an additional 13 to 14 million of elderly people will
require care support in the period 2007 – 2060, and this in a sector dominated by 90% women. The
care sector is growing across industrialised nations, which one would suppose should benefit women
working in this area. However, she argued that a lot of these roles, which are typically not very well
paid, are being carried out in the informal economy and therefore do not accrue the same degree of
benefits and social welfare protection entitlements or pension rights as do careers in other fields.
The expansion of the green sector, on the other hand, will be driving growth and increasing job
opportunities in the future. Yet, women are not expected to take much of that share. According to a
US study, the projected share of newly created ‘green’ jobs going to women in the period 2008-2018
ranges from a low of 14% to a high of 28%; figures which lag well behind the share of women’s
employment in the US. A comparative study is not available for the EU, but if it can be assumed that
the situation would be similar then this constitutes the beginning of a worrying trend that may see
women left behind in an expanding industry that could offer quality employment opportunities.
Women’s Fluid Attachment to the Labour Market
Finally, Ms. Bettio identified liquidity, flexibility and mobility as a challenge to women in the
workforce. The ‘liquid’ market, which is characterised by its ability to adapt and be flexible, and to
respond quickly to a fast-paced changing marketplace has both positives and negatives for those
involved in working in ‘liquid’ jobs. The ability to dip in and out of employment may suit many
people, and in particular women with children. However, there are negative consequences on
maternity leave, since present policies and protections do not account for non-permanent jobs and
‘non-work’ contracts. This poses the question; do our current employment policies adequately
consider ‘liquid’ employees, as much as ‘solid’ employees?
Mobility and labour movement between Member States also seems to be a barrier disproportionately
affecting women. Mobility rates remain fairly low in Europe in general, but it is especially so for
women. According to Ms. Bettio, 22% of EU men, compared to only 14% of EU women envisage
working abroad at some point in the future. This is merely expectation. When it comes to realisation,
that gap widens even further, which begs the question; why do women feel so much more curtailed
with respect to freedom of movement, and less open to those possibilities?
Childcare and Wider Caring Challenges – views of the European Commission
As had been identified in the morning session by a number of speakers, a significant challenge for
women in employment concerns childcare.
Ms. Muriel Bissières of DG JUST in the European Commission gave a comprehensive overview of
childcare policy and the EU Barcelona targets, which require Member States to make childcare places
available for at least 33% of all children up to the age of 3, and 90% of children from 3 years of age to
compulsory school age. These targets should have been achieved by 2010, and a current progress
report is currently being drawn up. However, it is known that, to date, only 10 Member States have
previously reached the targets, leaving many more countries yet to make any substantial progress to
achieving the same. These data are reflected in Figures 25 and 26 overleaf.
- 49 -
FIGURE 25
CHILDCARE PROVISION FOR CHILDREN UNDER 3 COMPARED WITH BARCELONA TARGETS
Proportion of children up to 3 years cared for by formal
arrangements 2010
FIGURE 26
CHILDCARE PROVISION FOR CHILDREN 3- SCHOOL START AGE COMPARED WITH BARCELONA
TARGETS
Proportion of children from 3 years to mandatory school age
cared for by formal arrangements 2010
The Commission representative commented that more recent figures for 2011 actually show a
deterioration of the situation in some of the countries that had already reached the targets.
For the majority of EU countries who have not met the targets, parents are often severely restricted in
terms of choice, owing to distance and accessibility of childcare services, as well as opening hours,
with part-time hours being an issue. Further barriers include eligibility criteria, for example two
- 50 -
parents may have to be working in order to avail of the childcare service. This would mean that, for
instance, women in training were not eligible for uptake of the service. By far the biggest barrier
restricting parents choices of childcare concerns price and affordability, as indicated in the next
figure.
FIGURE 27
BARRIERS TO THE USE OF CHILDCARE BY PARENTS
Barriers preventing parents from using childcare services
Figure refers to EU-27 (without DK and SE) women 15-64 not working or working part-time for
reasons linked with childcare.
Source: EU-LFS 2010 AHM
Ms. Bissières also expressed concern that the childcare industry is highly feminised, as a result of
which childcare assistants often have low educational attainment and training, with a high turn-over of
employees, making it a precarious employment with a negative impact on the provision of services.
This has an impact on women’s employment, as is clearly demonstrated in Figure 28 below, which
shows the direct correlation between provision of formal childcare in the early years and the
subsequent affect on women’s employment rates while Figure 29, which follows, overleaf, shows that
significant numbers of women say that they cannot work or can only work part time due to the nonavailability of affordable childcare.
FIGURE 28
Relation between the employment rates of women 20-49
with youngest child below 6 years old and share of
children in formal childcare (2010)
Source: EU-SILC and Labour Force Survey
- 51 -
FIGURE 29
IMPACT OF CHILDCARE ON LABOUR MARKET ATTACHMENT
Around one quarter of women working part-time or inactive
due to care responsibilities (15-64 y) declare they can’t work
more because of unsuitable childcare facilities
A further barrier, closely linked to care obligations, is the dilemma often facing the second-earner in a
household. The higher the childcare cost, the lower the incentive to work. This translates, in reality,
into lower employment and more frequent drop-out of women from the labour force, who are
typically the second-earner in the household. Ms Bettio had made this point in her earlier presentation,
pointing out that this trend shows an “association between this implicit tax that childcare costs
represent and the dropping out of women at reproductive age … known as the ‘motherhood penalty’”
Furthermore, women’s status as the second-earner in a household and the consequent ‘incentive’ to
leave the labour market because of prohibitive childcare costs, drives the gender pay gap, the gender
pension gap – as previously mentioned – but also positions the second earner in a weaker financial
position than the partner.
In the vast majority of cases across the EU, women take home less than 45% of total labour income in
the household, thereby negatively impacting on their economic independence. This may have negative
consequences pertaining to the equal say that women have in deciding on household budget
allocations, and can lead to domestic situations of dominance and subordination.
Actions to Overcome the Barriers
Ms. Bissières identified some of the actions being taken at EU level to address the challenges for
women in the workforce, and the workplaces, as well as existing initiatives that seek to overcome
those barriers. She referred first to legislative and funding initiatives and drew the audience’s attention
to recent legislation and legislative proposals:
•
•
•
Revised parental leave directive
Maternity leave draft directive and
Working time directive
She also mentioned that the development of childcare services could be funded by Member States
using the forthcoming Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014 – 2020 funding package. The
review by Member States of their performance against the Barcelona targets and the ongoing Country
- 52 -
Specific Recommendations are additional “soft law” measures to assist the development of childcare
to support working parents.
In addition to legislation and ‘soft law’, the challenge of childcare for working women can be
addressed by other means. For instance it is crucial to really begin questioning the role of men as
fathers, their expectations, needs and wishes with respect to spending time with, and caring for their
children. Only when there is a more equitable division of childcare responsibilities will the situation
really begin to improve for women in the workplace.
The positive ramifications could contribute to a diminishing gender pay gap, greater numbers of
women progressing in their careers, and a more positive home and family life for male and female
parents of children. It would be very beneficial to initiate between EU Member States an exchange of
good practices on flexible working time arrangements and on childcare policy that benefits both
women and men.
In her concluding comments Ms. Bissieres also underpinned the need to ensure the quality of
childcare provision, pointing in particular to the European Quality Framework for the Early
Childhood Care and Education sector
The Employers’ Perspective
The final contributors to this session both came from the private sector. Their contributions, taken
with the comments from DELL EMEA Vice-President Aongus Hegarty earlier in the day, show that
there is an increasing recognition among many major employers of the important contribution women
make to the labour market and the need to champion this situation.
Citi Ireland
Ms. Celia Ronan of Citi Ireland explained that within Citi Ireland women were more likely to be
working in the lower grades such as in services and languages, while, on a positive note, women had
now progressed to up to 40 per cent of senior management positions, compared with just 20 per cent
as recently as two years ago. Experience within the firm was showing that women were advancing to
the middle ranks within the firm at a quicker pace than men but they were also dropping out earlier.
Increasing numbers of men are taken parental leave, while fewer than 2 per cent of women have
ceased employment after a pregnancy and maternity leave over the past two years.
While the economic downturn may be a factor in women’s continued attachment to the labour market,
Citi Ireland has introduced a number of proactive steps aimed at addressing barriers to women’s
career progression, and overall to improve the working lives of women employees, and indeed men in
the organisation. These included a Women’s Leadership Development Programme, Maternity
workshops to support women returning to work, backup childcare support in a nearby creche, in cases
of emergency, and a Workshop for new fathers within the company. These measures followed an
employee survey and are summarised in the next figure.
- 53 -
FIGURE 30
Challenges & Initiatives for Women at Citi
Women’s
Leadership
Development
Programme
New Father’s
Workshop
Voice of the Employee Survey
Increased focus on VOE feedback
by gender
Development plans based on
overcoming challenges
Backup Childcare
Support & parental
coaching
Maternity
Workshops &
buddies
Senior managers are highly
committed
Challenges are not unique to Citi
Coaching for
Success Programme
Connect:
Professional
Women’s Network
on LinkedIn
Flexible Working
Arrangements
Women Leading
Citi network
A challenge for women who are in the workforce, and who want to progress their careers was
identified by Ms. Ronan. She has noted that women tend to reach middle management levels at a
quicker pace than men, with young women in particular coming up through the ranks. However, they
are also dropping out earlier than men. Citi Ireland has been committed to following up with these
women and querying the reasons for their departure from the company. This makes clear that
promotional challenges remain an issue for women in the workplace.
Sodexo Ireland
The final panel speaker in this session was Ms. Margot Slattery of Sodexo Ireland. As a global
services provider, Ms. Slattery told the conference that employees are the central resource for the
company. The next figure shows female representation across the Sodexo Group, which, with
410,000 employees, is the 22nd largest company globally.
FIGURE 31
REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AT SODEXO
38 % of the Board
25 % of Group Executive Committee
23 % of Group Senior Leaders
42 % of our Middle Management
41 % of our Site Managers
56 % of the Workforce
5
The firm has adopted a policy whereby every member of staff from the CEO to staff at service level
do a one-day course called ‘Spirit of Inclusion’, which deals with diversity and inclusion. The reason
is a business objective - being a growing company, there is a need to further expand the workforce
considerably and a need to fight for talented employees on the labour market. Fostering a culture of
- 54 -
inclusion is central to company policy and this has been a specific objective of top management, as a
result of which there are now 38 per cent of women on the Board (for France and Europe).
Increases in women’s participation at senior level have been achieved through targeted actions such as
SWIFT (Sodexo Women’s International Forum for Talent), a women’s network founded by the
female Chair for UK & Ireland, which began with just three members and which now has over 700
members. Linked to this initiative, the company has also set a number of key targets related to
increasing the representation of women in top positions through its Diversity and Inclusion
Programme as shown in Figure 32:
FIGURE 32
PRIORITIES FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN SODEXO
Global diversity and inclusion strategy
GLOBAL D&I STRATEGY
Discussion
The first question raised following the presentations related to the low pay normally associated with
care working, Ms. Bettio was asked what might be done to address this problem and she advocated
that Member States formalise strategies for carers and caring, while also suggesting collectivity as a
further approach to address low wages. She pointed out that the provision of care, particularly elder
care need not always be a charge on the individual states and can be provided by combining both
public and private sectors.
The question of childcare was again raised (as it had been in the discussion following the earlier
session and in this session the speaker (again from the EWL) suggested that the Barcelona targets
were now more than ten years old and should therefore be updated.
The final point made by a participant in this session identified the need for institutional
transformation, with view to achieving gender equality coupled with possible unconscious bias within
institutions. Ms Ronan responded that firms need to recognise high potential and high performing
women and bring them along while Ms. Slattery pointed to the difficulty of dealing with bias, noting
that while people can be reluctant to admit they have it, the key is to ensure its recognition and then to
encourage people to tackle it and move beyond it.
- 55 -
Chapter 7
Session 4: Towards the Top – Advancing Women in the Workplace
Introduction
The under-representation of women in decision-making is a key element of the European
Commission’s current Gender Equality Strategy and is also a goal in the current Programme for
Government in Ireland. The advancement of women into more senior roles also contributes to better
decision-making while addressing gender equality challenges such as the gender pay gap.
The order of speaker is adjusted in this report to make the report more coherent in terms of content.
Opening the session, moderator Ms. Virginija Langbaak, Director of the European Institute for
Gender Equality, told the conference that the newly developed Gender Equality Index, due to be
published in summer 2013, would show that the index on “power-sharing” between the sexes shows
the greatest divergence among all the parameters contained in the Index. Accordingly, there is still
much to do to advance the role of women in decision-making.
Contributing to the debate on this panel were the Lithuanian Minister of Social Security and Labour,
Mrs. Algimanta Pabedinskienė, Ms. Daniela Bankier of the Gender Equality Unit at DG-Justice in the
European Commission, Ms. Geraldine Huse of Procter &Gamble, Ms. Mirella Visser from the Centre
of Inclusive Leadership and Ms. Ruth Sealy of the International Centre for Women Leaders.,
Cranfield School of Management, England
The Experience of Lithuania
Delivering her keynote address to the conference, Mrs. Algimanta Pabedinskienė told delegates that in
Lithuania, traditionally, women have always worked and the employment rate for women is almost
equal to men’s while the unemployment rate for women remains lower than male unemployment.
Nevertheless, there is still not sufficient gender balance in political decision-making or on the boards
of large companies.
In Lithuania, the best gender balance in the highest positions is in the civil service while women
comprise about half of all diplomats, and more than half of the lawyers. However, the decision
making bodies of the Central Bank include only 20 per cent of women while only 19 per cent of
company board members are women at present in Lithuania.
Minister Pabedinskienė commented that systematic and complex well-targeted measures of the
National Programme on equal opportunities for women and men really work and demonstrate results
and she said she had no doubts but that the economic engagement of women, their full and effective
participation in the labour market and their advancement in decision making positions lead to de facto
equality between men and women.
- 56 -
Work of the European Commission in this field
Ms. Daniela Bankier, Head of the Gender Equality Division in the Commission began by giving
details of the database developed by the Commission. It contains data on women in decision-making
positions in the economy, also in politics and in public administration. This database is now in place
for about ten years, and, as a publicly available resource, accessible on the Commission website, it
facilitates an exploration of the evolution of the de facto situation. The data gathered are based on
indicators developed at EU level to monitor implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.
She pointed out that the most recent data show that the share of women on boards of companies
across the EU 27 is still only 15.8 per cent; while only 3 per cent of Board chairs and only 2 per cent
of CEOs are women. The situation in the different Member States is represented in figure 33 below.
FIGURE 33
WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION ON CORPORATE BOARDS
Women account for just 15.8% of
board members (Oct-2012)
In relation to board membership, she pointed out that is difficult to speak of progress because change
is “very, very slow” at, on average, 0.8 percentage points per year and therefore the Commission has
estimated that, at this pace, it would take another 40 years to achieve a targeted 40 per cent
representation of women on boards.
Ms. Bankier then outlined the key steps being taken by the Commission and the Member States to
address this strategic goal. They are summarised in the next Figure (overleaf) and comprise both a
legislative proposal, currently under discussion at the Council of Ministers, and soft measures which
can be taken by both the Commission and Member States.
- 57 -
FIGURE 34
INITIATIVES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP ROLES
Improving gender balance among nonexecutive directors of companies listed on
stock exchanges (excluding SMEs)
LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL
Proposal for a Directive
(November 2012):
Binding objective of 40% for
non-executive directors
by 1 January 2020
by 2018 for public
undertakings)
COMPLEMENTARY
INITIATIVES
Support initiatives to combat
gender stereotyped
representations of women's
and men's roles
Contribute to the creation of a
social, economic and business
environment that facilitates
equal opportunities for
women and men in leadership
Promote the economic and
business case for gender
equality
Support/monitor progress
across the EU
Ms. Bankier explained that, in 2011, Commission Vice President Viviane Reding had entered into a
dialogue with companies on ways to improve the gender balance on boards and had invited companies
to redress the situation by way of self-regulation. However there was no significant improvement in
the first year and as a result, and following both a political and a public consultation, the Commission
decided to bring forward a draft directive for binding law. The new Regulation foresees an objective
of 40 % of the share of the under-represented sex on company boards by 2020, giving plenty of time
to find the necessary candidates and to reach the target. This draft Regulation applies to nonexecutive directors and proposes that, for equally well qualified candidates of both genders, that
preference would be given to the sex that is under-represented. The achievement of this goal will
impose on companies the obligation to introduce transparent recruitment processes for non-executive
directors.
Ms. Bankier also made the point that legislation alone is not adequate to address the imbalance of
women as decision-makers. She emphasised the need to create operational and cultural environments
within organisations, which are conducive to equal opportunities; the reconciliation of work and care
obligations and a culture supportive of the advancement of women.
The Voluntary Initiative on Corporate Boards in the UK
Cranfield School of Management in the United Kingdom currently monitors progress for the British
Government on the voluntary approach the UK Government and London Stock Exchange adopted in
relation to the presence of women on corporate boards. At present, the UK Government is pursuing a
business-led, voluntary, approach to women’s engagement on boards as explained by Ms. Ruth Sealy,
of the Cranfield Management School.
The female FTSE report has been reporting since 1999. At that time, there were 6.9% of women on
boards. The structure of boards in the UK is unitary, which means that the supervisory function is not
separate. Over the next decade, incremental increases were made and the level reached 12% in 2009.
However, progress stalled in 2010, and, in 2011, the UK government set up a review, led by Lord
Davies, a very prominent and influential banker, to look at the situation.
- 58 -
Ten key recommendations are outlined in the findings of the Davies report. It is significant that
nothing in the review set out recommendations for women to make changes – for example, that
women need to be more assertive, or confident, for instance – rather the issues lay with other
stakeholders. Recommendations were made for chairmen, CEOs, financial reporting councils, existing
business board members, and the media. Furthermore, it was recognised in the report that it was not a
supply problem – there were plenty of qualified women – but a systematic failure to recruit and
advance talented women.
The UK has exhibited some positives improvements in the situation, with the overall figure increasing
to 17.3%, but since September 2012, some stagnation is apparent, with further decline since March
2013. However, there is still confidence that the target of 25% women on all FTSE 100 companies by
2015 can be reached, although this will be very dependent on a third of all new appointments going to
women for all subsequent years.
Bringing Women into Leadership Positions
Ms. Mirella Visser, from the Centre for Inclusive Leadership pointed out to the audience that
advancing to the top requires a mix of three leadership characteristics/competencies: Power
Promotion and Performance. All the barriers to women’s advancement can be explained by these
characteristics and equally can be overcome by addressing them.
As depicted in the next figure, each of the three factors is important to differing degrees, depending if
the role within the management structure viz. junior, middle or senior management [for example,
performance is likely to be the most crucial concern for junior managers and power for senior
managers]. This impacts upon incentives to build networks and in top management, it is very
important to have networks of contacts, including external contacts.
FIGURE 35
COMPETENCIES AT DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT LEVELS
Advancing to the top requires a mix
of leadership competencies
Pow er
P ower
P ower
Directing
Prom ot ion
P rom otion
Perform ance
P rom otion
Delegating
P erform ance
P erform ance
Doing &
Det ails
Junior M gt
Mid dle Mgt
Senior M gt
Ms Visser said she has observed, among many women and a lot of companies, that women enter at
junior management level 50/50 – there’s no problem there – then going up to middle management, it’s
- 59 -
about 25% women, 75% men, and then going to senior management a huge gap opens up. She
suggests that this situation arises because women do not develop the two competencies of promotion
and power during their careers. She stressed the importance of delegation but also emphasised that
delegation requires self-confidence and confidence to leave others to the performance of the task.
She referred to the fact that, while women are shown to be excellent in performance, they often leave
little time for building networks, for promoting themselves and for building their reputation – all of
which has a negative impact at the time of promotion, and thus helps to explain the wage-gap that
emerges quickly between male and female employees.
Ms. Visser then presented some data from the Netherlands where, among top board positions, more
women are evident on supervisory boards (and therefore in a support function), rather than on more
powerful executive boards. Women account for 15 % of supervisory board members (typically
promoted from outside an organisation), 10 % of the chairs of boards, and just 5 % of executive board
members (typically promoted from within an organisation). She expressed the view that it is
important that any quota requirements or self-regulation to increase the percentage of women on
boards includes both Supervisory Boards and Executive Boards, because targets in relation to
Executive Boards will require companies to look at ways to promote more women from within the
organisation.
Ms. Visser pointed out that, while there is a convergence on thought on the need to make change in
relation to women’s presence in business structures, there is less of a convergence of thinking in
relation to how this might be achieved. She pointed out that companies are not democracies,
companies are commercial entities, and commercial entities relate to and respond to hard numbers
rather than to ideals. She spoke of concern regarding the temporary nature of these initiatives, and
therefore the risk that the momentum will peter out. She also noted that, at the moment, there are no
real penalties, given the voluntary self-regulation nature of actions. She saw quotas as the first part of
the solution which needs monitoring and engagement, perhaps by civil society.
Finally she presented a Figure which showed steps being taken in some of the EU Member States to
advance women’s roles on corporate boards.
FIGURE 36
MEASURES BEING TAKEN IS SELECTED EU MEMBER STATES
TO ADVANCE WOMEN’S ROLES ON CORPORATE BOARDS
Wave of measures
C ou ntry
Scope
Qu ota or self-r eg.
San ction s
EU
List ed co ’s
40% on SB b y 20 20
(pro po sal )
Me mber State law
8.9%
15%
No rwa y
State-ow ne d, pub l. lim.
priv. secto r
40% b y 20 12
Warnin g, fine ,
delis tin g
17% ;
46%
4 4%
Finlan d
Pub lic, p riv. sector
Self-r egulation
No
14.9%
27 .9%
27. 1%
Sw ede n
Pub lic, p riv. sector
Self-r egulation
No
4%
26 .5%
25. 2%
Fran ce
Priv., s tate-ow ne d, >
500 emp l, > € 5 0m
20% b y 20 14, 40 % in
20 17
Nulli ty bo ard
el ect ion s
3.3%
24 .2%
22. 3%
NL
La rger co’s (crite ria)
30% on EB and SB by
20 13 (- 2016 )
‘E xp lai n’
8.8%
18 .8%
18. 5%
UK
Private sector
Self-r egulation
No
6.5%
18 .7%
15. 6%
Italy
List ed, s tate-ow ned
1/ 3 aft er 2 nd ren.
Warnin g, fine , forf.
0.8%
7.1%
6.1%
S ource : EC Da tabas e on W ome n a nd Me n in De cisi on-mak ing, Jan 2 01 3
- 60 -
E xe cu tive
No nExec.
To tal
13. 7%
Achieving Cultural Change at Company Level – an Experience from United Kingdom
Ms Geraldine Huse, Vice-President, Procter and Gamble UK and Ireland (P&G) recounted the
experience in her firm with respect to gender and diversity. P&G had identified and found evidence
internally to corroborate the business case for enhanced gender equality as depicted in the following
figure.
FIGURE 37
THE BUSINESS CASE FOR GENDER EQUALITY AS SEEN BY P&G
The business case…
‘Companies with
diverse boards have
a +41% higher return
on equity than less
diverse companies....’
McKinsey
Diverse teams
deliver +5% better
sales than
homogenous teams
P&G
Companies with more
women at the top deliver:
+35% return on equity
+34% higher TSR
Catalyst
‘Companies with a
gender mix fare
better in periods of
economic volatility.’
Thomson Reuters
In the last decade, P&G management has considered why fewer women than men were being
promoted. The focus was on management level employees, who had entered the company as
graduates and with privileged educational backgrounds. Research had revealed that the reason was not
because of company policies or childcare as flex-work, maternity/paternity leave, etc. were all
available. Rather, they found that the barriers were not organisational policies; they were
o
o
o
Culture (people didn’t feel comfortable with the culture in the company)
Inclusion (people didn’t feel included in the decision-making process)
Confidence (“women weren’t confident they could do these top jobs, and especially,
they weren’t confident they could do these top jobs and have the kind of family and
work-life balance that they wanted”)
P&G identified and implemented three measures to be taken to overcome hurdles to women’s
progression into management and director positions. These actions have taken place over a ten year
period from 2002. The results were shown in the figure below:
FIGURE 38
INCREASE IN FEMALE REPRESENTATION BY GRADE OVER TEN YEARS
7
P&G Diversity…
% female by level (UK)
2002
2012
100%
10 0%
90%
9 0%
80%
8 0%
70%
7 0%
60%
6 0%
50%
5 0%
40%
4 0%
30%
3 0%
20%
2 0%
10%
1 0%
0%
Lev el 1
Lev e l 2
Lev el 3
Le vel 4
Lev el 5
L ev el 6
0%
- 61 -
Lev e l 1
Lev el 2
L ev el 3
Lev e l 4/5
L ev el 6
The first such initiative was an organisational training workshop called ‘Sex @ Work’ which was
rolled out to look at the perceived typical styles of women’s and men’s leadership, and the pros and
cons of those traits. Behavioural differences which were identified are summarised in Figure 39.
FIGURE 39
BEHAVIOURAL DIFFERENCES BY SEX IDENTIFIED IN PROCTER AND GAMBLE
Male
Female
Express emotion with anger - speak
louder/externalize the issue
Express emotion by shutting up speak more
softly/internalizing the issue
Enter a meeting with a clear agenda/
preformed pov
Enter a meeting ready to listen, discuss and debate
the agenda items
Like hierarchical decisions - don’t ask
questions
Like consensus - ask questions to build
relationships
Focus on the end results - task orientated
See work as a process - people orientated
Announce their accomplishments
Explain the relevance of their actions
Team player – loyal to goal
Team Player – loyal to people
Loyalty to career
Loyalty to company
Compete for airtime
Divide airtime equally
WIN : LOSE - See life as a contest
WIN : WIN - See life as delivering through11
“teams”
However, the message was, ultimately, that it is crucial to remember that either, or any, leadership
style is acceptable. The issue is to recognise the approach that is most appropriate to a given situation
and that is natural to the ‘leader’, as long as it produces results. This encourages individuals to be
themselves, and to express their leadership style in a genuine way. The entire organisation attended
the workshop, and it resulted in widespread appreciation of diverse leadership styles, and by extension
a greater acceptance of women in leadership positions.
Ms Huse presented the model for change as a four generational plan which is illustrated in the next
figure of four charts which are self-explanatory:
FIGURE 40
BEHAVIOURAL CHANGES TO ACHIEVE DE FACTO GENDER DIVERSITY WITHIN THE FIRM
THE 44-GENERATION MODEL
Generation One: Masculinity
Women
“Female” behaviours
Men
THE 44-GENERATION MODEL
Generation Two: Femininity
“Encouraged
style”
“Encouraged
style”
“Male” behaviours
Women change their styles to conform more with men
“Female” behaviours
“Male” behaviours
THE 44-GENERATION MODEL
Generation Four: True Diversity
Men
“Female” behaviours
“Male” behaviours
Co mpani es try to en co urag e both sexe s to ha ve both styl es cre ating “ho moge nous”
e mplo ye es.
Men
Men are forced to make their style more like women’s
THE 44-GENERATION MODEL
Generation Three: Conversity
Women “Encouraged
style”
Women
Women
“Female” behaviours
Men
“Male” behaviours
Companies are happy for all employees to have DIFFERENT styles and allow them to
live next to each other.
The second technique outlined by Ms. Huse was the use of reverse mentoring throughout the
organisation. This involved a female mentoring a male leader, and male mentoring a female leader.
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The point of this was to discuss what it was in the leader’s style that they felt alienated the team. This
feedback was found to be extremely helpful to managers.
Ms. Huse stressed that leaders have a responsibility to motivate talented staff, particularly women,
who are reluctant to progress for fear of failure or having to sacrifice too much. There have been
hugely positive results to all of P&G’s initiatives, which has seen the share of women increase to
50/50 representation at every level of management, in the ten-year period from 2002-2012.
She summarised the experience of Procter and Gamble noting that
“It is because of the wide reach of our products that diversity is a global strategy. We truly
believe that our leadership should represent the consumers we serve…
“We got data in our company that showed our sales were 5% higher when we had a diverse
team”; “It’s not saying one sex is any better, it’s about diversity, so you get that breadth of
thought”.
She concluded with a comment that, as a private sector company, employees in P & G are motivated
by sales. Therefore, if gender diversity is proven to be good for sales, it drives that change in diversity
and gender equality.
Discussion
The first question from the audience asked the participants “How can we get men to support these
drives to increase female representation at top levels?”
Ms. Huse commented that it is imperative that the company leadership, both male and female, is on
board. It can be threatening for males, but promotion based on results/performance show that it is not
discriminating against men in favour of women. It must be seen as the fair thing to do, against which
one cannot argue.
Ms. Sealy placed importance on the engagement of a man to head up the UK Review in order to
ensure that others (male chairmen and male CEOs) could empathise and support him, while they
could also be more easily convinced of the business case by a peer.
Ms. Visser was of the view that a “debate” should be avoided, while she pointed out that the way to
‘convince’ is simply to move ahead with putting in place a number of measures. She suggested that
“if it gets measured, it gets done’. She also suggested that the message shouldn’t be that women are
better leaders, but it is about the mix, which is beneficial for innovation and productive decisionmaking.
In response to a question as to what had started the process in P&G, Ms. Huse said that the catalyst
was the discovery of data proving that diversity was good for sales. She suggested that “the culture is
the start-point, and then you’ve got to include people.”
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A further question asked the European Commission what penalties will be in place in the draft
Directive to which Ms. Bankier responded that the draft Directive does impose penalties, but leaves it
to the Member State to choose which sanctions best fit the national system. The draft Directive does
require that sanctions must be effective; proportionate and dissuasive.
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Chapter 8
Session 5: Striking out Alone –Women and Entrepreneurship
Introduction
Entrepreneurship is regarded as an essential component to drive economic and employment growth.
This is of particular importance in the current challenging financial climate. Women continue to be
under-represented as entrepreneurs globally and at European levels but a new focus is being placed on
the role of women as entrepreneurs in both EU and Irish economic growth policies.
The fifth session of the Conference addressed female entrepreneurship and the session was moderated
by Ms. Jennifer Condon of Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Enterprise Development Agency. Opening
the session Ms. Condon pointed out that while entrepreneurship is regarded globally as an engine of
economic growth, at 30%, women are under-represented in this whole area. The Irish experience
shows that of all the companies supported by and/or receiving investment from Enterprise Ireland,
only about 10% involved a female leader.
This stark figure led Enterprise Ireland (EI) to launch a ‘Women in Business’ programme in 2012 to
raise awareness of opportunities available to women in starting their own businesses. (EI had also
supported the Going for Growth project since its foundation.) EI found that women came forward
with very high quality business plans and as an added bonus, there was a marked increase of 300% in
the numbers of women applying for general (i.e. not women specific) funding support to EI. She
pointed out that targeted programmes do work and produce results, but that real progress will have
been made when programmes specifically aimed at women are no longer required.
Ms. Condon concluded by pointing to the importance for the CEO/entrepreneur to be able to step
outside of the business, and outside of the management team for a little bit and to actually focus on
working on the business, as opposed to working in the business”
Entrepreneurship in an EU Context
“If you look at women as a source of entrepreneurship, they are 30% of entrepreneurs, but they
are 52% of the population. It’s the biggest gap of unused potential in Europe” – Marko
Curavic,
Mr. Curavic from DG-Enterprise, European Commission posed the question “why focus on
entrepreneurship?” and informed Conference delegates that 85% of new jobs in the EU are created by
small and medium sized enterprises, (SMEs), with more than 4 million jobs a year created by new
enterprises. Therefore, Europe gravely needs new entrepreneurs to maintain prosperity, growth and
jobs.
Mr. Curavic also outlined the micro-economic argument for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship, he
said,
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“gives every citizen the possibility for self-fulfilment, for balancing private and professional
life, it gives you more flexibility … For women, beyond a career option and a source of
revenue, it’s also a source of empowerment … in so far as women can create their own jobs
by becoming entrepreneurs, they create their own leadership positions, they themselves take
care of their pay.”
The present economic environment is not immediately encouraging for new business start-ups, so
there is a need to focus on fostering this desire in people, through:
o
o
o
Education: this is one of the pillars in the Entrepreneurship Action Plan. It is crucial to
do real-life exercises in schools to build up skills; theory and advice are not enough.
Investment in entrepreneurship education is the highest return investment being made in
Europe today
Role models: it is important that entrepreneurs are recognised for what they do, and are
given sufficient status, rather than simply considered important for the money they make
Skills, attitudes and perceptions: These all play a role in establishing a favourable
environment, which fosters an entrepreneurial spirit
The European Commission has been active in encouraging women’s engagement in entrepreneurship
for many years. The WES (Women in Entrepreneurship) network, founded 13 years ago to promote
female entrepreneurship, has facilitated beneficial and valuable peer learning among 31 European
countries. In 2009, the European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Investors was established.
More than 300 women and men, who are successful entrepreneurs, went to schools and universities to
tell their stories and impart their experiences to women of all ages to encourage them onto this path.
Through this resource, more than 10,000 people across 22 countries received the benefit of their
expertise. Many of these 300 entrepreneurs went a step further, and offered tailored advice to
individual women setting up businesses. This led to the foundation, in 2011, of the European Network
of Mentors and Women Entrepreneurs, which now has over 200 mentors to help women with concrete
advice, as well as moral support.
It was recognised, however, that physical networks have their limits as it is only possible to travel so
far in reaching out face-to-face to individual women. Within the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan,
provision was made to set up an e-platform tool. This is a portal for women entrepreneurs, which
should, for a sustainable time – over the next seven years (2014-2020) - give women entrepreneurs the
chance to network with each other, engage in e-learning, find advice, coaching and like-minded
women entrepreneurs or men to help them promote and advance their businesses. The aim of the
portal is to connect women across the EU and to reach women in remote and hard to reach places.
Through the support of experienced women entrepreneurs, as well as women at the start up phase of
business, members of the network would more effectively expand and grow their businesses.
Supporting Female Entrepreneurs in Ireland – the Going for Growth Project
Ms. Paula Fitzsimons told the delegates of an ESF funded project in Ireland entitled the “Going for
Growth” initiative, which she had founded in response to a call from the Gender Equality Unit at the
Department of Justice and Equality (IE). The purpose of the Department’s call had been to encourage
and support more women onto the entrepreneurship path. The unique selling point of the Going for
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Growth project is that it crucially helps women to grow and expand their existing businesses. The
competitive process involved in accessing the Going for Growth programme requires participants to
show that they have plans to expand.
Prior to the establishment of the Going for Growth initiative, Ms. Fitzsimons had perceived that while
many women are interested in establishing their own companies, some are reluctant to really expand
the business for fear that it will mean having to work harder, and longer hours, with the additional
stressful burden of being responsible for a team of employees. However, Ms. Fitzsimons said that
from her experience, she is now convinced of the importance of the need by the entrepreneur to
consider the growth of one’s business in order to allow for more flexibility for the entrepreneur in the
long term, particularly at times when the entrepreneur may need to take a step back from the day-today running of the business, while still maintaining output. In growing a business she points out that
“you don’t have to work harder; you just have to work smarter”.
She summarised her impressions in the following figure
FIGURE 41
CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED IN RELATION TO FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Setting Out The Challenge
•
Fewer women start new businesses than do men
•
Latent entrepreneurial potential of women recognised
•
Focus on encouraging more women to start businesses
•
This addresses only part of the challenge!
•
Of those women that start, fewer grow their businesses
•
Means needed to encourage and support more women to develop and
grow their businesses
•
Open call for proposals for the development of a growth acceleration
initiative for women entrepreneurs by Gender Equality Unit of
Department of Justice and Equality
She pointed out that research findings in relation to entrepreneurs’ aspirations for growth are very
revealing in Ireland. Nine times more men than women believe that they will successfully grow their
business, so that, in 5 years time, they will employ 20 people or more. Similarly, there is huge
emphasis on the importance of the visibility of female entrepreneurs as role models. That element
impacts more on women than men, with women who know an entrepreneur being five times more
likely to found a business, with the corresponding figure of only twice as likely for men.
Going for Growth selects participants who are all at the same stage of developing their business. They
come together in groups and are led by a woman lead entrepreneur, who fosters their development
through agenda led discussions. The lead entrepreneurs in Going for Growth give their time
voluntarily, which equates to a pro bono contribution valued at about €0.5 million a year.
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Ms. Fitzsimons stressed that it is important to acknowledge this value, which, as well as the fact that
the positive peer pressure generated in the Going for Growth programme, such as raising ambitions,
combating feelings of isolation, and developing motivation and confidence, goes beyond the ‘feel
good factor’, and has been shown to produce extremely impressive outcomes (as detailed in the slides
below), particularly considering the tough economic environment.
Currently in the fifth cycle of the programme, the fourth roll out of Going for Growth proved to be
particularly successful. To date, over 240 women have taken part in the initiative, and many of those
who began as participants have now become mentors within the process. The benefits to the
participants are summarised in the next Figure
FIGURE 42
BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATING IN GOING FOR GROWTH
Effects of Going for Growth
Reduces sense of isolation
Applies “good” peer pressure
Participants become highly motivated and
confidence increases
Learn from each other as well as from the Lead
Move towards achieving stated goals
Set ambitions even higher
A total of 59 women entrepreneurs took part in the fourth cycle of the Going for Growth Initiative,
with results showing that all of them considered the experience a positive one. Furthermore, 97%
made a decision for their businesses as a result of their involvement with the programme, with 98%
believing they were now closer to their growth goals. The next figure (in two parts) shows the
tangible outcomes reported by the participants. This includes increases in sales, in employment and in
exports.
FIGURE 43
OUTCOMES ACHIEVED BY PARTICIPANTS IN PHASE 4 OF GOING FOR GROWTH
Tangible Outcomes -
Tangible Outcomes -Employment
Sales Combined turnover at start of cycle - €46m
In six month period, the 59 participants
Increases made by the participants in six month
period
At least 32 of the participants’ businesses
experienced a growth in sales
Strengthened at least 450 existing jobs
Median growth of these was 24.5%
47% (28) took on new staff
An additional 50 (+11%) individuals were
employed
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Experiences from Participants in Going for Growth
The Conference then heard of the first hand experiences of two participants in the Going for Growth
Initiative –first from Ms. Elaine Coughlan, a lead mentor and then from Ms. Ceara McNeela, a
participant in the Initiative.
Elain Coughlan – Mentor Going for Growth
Ms. Coughlan is one of 20 current lead entrepreneurs involved on a pro bono basis in the delivery of
the Going for Growth programme, whose own companies have, in total a gross annual turnover of
approximately €0.5 billion and employ around 8,000 people.
Ms. Coughlan detailed her successful involvement in the technology industry. She is one of only four
women at European level to have founded a technology fund, which invests in start-up global
technology companies. Five companies in which Ms Coughlan’s company has invested are now
listed on the Nasdaq index in the USA and have become multi-billion dollar companies. This
investment was undertaken with assistance from the European Investment Fund, as well as Enterprise
Ireland, which were both instrumental in getting her company, Atlantic Bridge, up and running, thus
showing the importance of access to finance and working capital.
Currently, Atlantic Bridge has over 30 companies on its portfolio, employing approximately 2,000
people.
In relation to her role as a lead entrepreneur with Going for Growth, she felt the need to de-bunk the
myths and mystique surrounding entrepreneurship, and the process of securing financial backing. But
there are challenges, especially as regards scale and export, sales and marketing, and access to
expertise, as well as finance and growth equity.
However, she pointed out that significant improvements are becoming apparent in the area of
women’s entrepreneurship. This can primarily be credited to the strides made in technological
advancement. Women now have access to ready-made networks and social networks, to the same
degree as male entrepreneurs. In addition, IT platforms, such as cloud computing, are enabling startup businesses, including those founded by women, to get off the ground on relatively low levels of
financial investment. Ms. Coughlan argued that women entrepreneurs must embrace these
opportunities with both hands.
Ceara Mc Neela, Participant, Going for Growth
Ms. Mc Neela has founded two companies, Asgard Industrial Systems Ltd., and Asgard Engineering
(M.E.) Ltd., which are both mechanical engineering companies supplying and manufacturing
materials for the semi-conductor, pharmaceutical and food industries. As a participant in Going for
Growth, Ms. Mc Neela was especially grateful that her lead entrepreneur, acting as a mentor, was on
hand to ask the difficult questions that one might otherwise avoid asking oneself.
In addition, the ‘thinking big’ attitude to growth was a key influencing factor. Although her company,
Asgard Industrial Systems Ltd, had intended to expand into the UK market, her involvement in the
Going for Growth initiative inspired her to re-assess that plan, and to put in place a more ambitious
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target. Ms. Mc Neela’s company now very successfully exports to Malaysia, with a view to breaking
into the markets in New Zealand and Australia. The tangible benefits of this expansion have seen
revenue streams grow in the period 2010-2011 by 30% as summarised in the next figure
FIGURE 44
OUTCOMES OF ONE PARTICIPANT IN GOING FOR GROWTH
Impact of Going for Growth
•Increase in sales
• 2010-2011 increase by 30%
• 2012 additional 68%
• 2013 to date additional 18%
• Increased Irish customer base
• Exporting to Malaysia
• Australia and New Zealand next
Aside from the positive financial impact on her business, Ms. Mc Neela commented that the support
network aspect of Going for Growth has been invaluable. It has allowed her the time to ‘think’ about
the business, rather than simply ‘do’ the business, providing an opportunity to get clarity about the
desired direction of the company, and giving a fresh perspective. The community of women
entrepreneurs, who are sharing similar experiences, as well as their willingness to give support and
advice, has helped to combat feelings of isolation that are often a reality in life as an entrepreneur.
She particularly emphasised the honest engagement of all the participants which she found to be most
useful.
A View from the Top
The final speaker in this session was Ms. Rosaleen Blair, Founder and CEO of Alexander Mann
Solutions. Ms. Blair offered advice to delegates which she admits was not so readily available or
accessible when she founded her business over sixteen years ago. To female entrepreneurs she gives
the simple message of ‘be yourself’:
“It’s hard enough to do the day job, without actually trying to be something other than yourself.
And that’s the single piece of advice I’d give to any female entrepreneur”.
She believes that over-institutionalised processes mean that innovation and change are less likely
within organisations and stunt the growth of intra-preneurship or development from within. In her
firm, it was recognised that the company needed to create food for thought, which they did through
‘lunch & learn sessions’ to try to draw out talent, particularly from women. In this way, the
organisation fosters ‘intra-preneurship’ by encouraging that vision from within the organisation in
both mature and younger businesses. At the heart of the success of this initiative is the need to build
women’s confidence, so that they are not risk averse and so they understand how to use risk to their
advantage.
Ms. Blair encouraged women to
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“push forward. If you believe in something, go and do it, and ask for forgiveness afterwards.
Because I think, too often as women if we don’t tick all the boxes needed to do the job, and
probably 2 or 3 more, we won’t actually apply”.
She urged the importance of recognising and owning the label ‘entrepreneur’ and, also the need to
more widely broadcast the supports that are available to women setting up businesses.
Discussion
Two participants posed questions about the role of education at the end of this Session. The first
commented that much of the focus of the Conference had been on women already in the workforce
and/or in university. She wondered about the messages being given to girls in school and at home and
how girls could be developed to become confident females so that women’s participation in labour
force in future can be increased?
The second question asked if education plays a key role in fostering an entrepreneurial and ambitious
spirit, is one of the key areas education? Mr Curavic from the Europeean Commission responded to
these questions, pointing out that
“If you have not had any entrepreneurship education in secondary school, the probability that
you will one day become an entrepreneur is about 3-5%; if you have had entrepreneurship
education in secondary school, it goes up to 15-20%”.
He argued the need to have “real-life” exercises in schools to build skills. The provision of theory and
advice are not enough. He suggested that investment in entrepreneurship education is the highest
return investment we can do today in Europe.
The final question related to the experience of the Going for Growth initiative and asked Ms
Fitzsimons whether, in the design of Going for Growth, the focus was largely on big businesses and
big enterprises? The speaker pointed out that the reason for her question relates to the fact that many
women entrepreneurs prefer to run a business on a smaller scale.
Ms. Fitzsimons replied that growth is a relative term. She pointed out that a sole trader, selfemployed, wanting to expand by employing two to three people is “growth”. The effect of the
programme is that those with very modest growth ambitions initially were frequently inspired to reevaluate those expectations. She contextualised this commenting that
“If an entrepreneur starts in the kitchen or spare room, she/he does not have to end in the
kitchen or spare room.”
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Chapter 9
Closing Session
Overview including from the Social Partners
Introduction
Due to the unavoidable and temporary absence of the Minister for State on Government business, the
final session was moderated by Pauline Moreau, Director, Gender Equality Division. She also read
the Minister’s summing up address on behalf of Minister Kathleen Lynch T.D. in which the Minister
stated that
“My team and I have been planning this Conference for over a year and it has completely
surpassed our expectations. In my earlier interventions, I have told you how delighted I am
that the theme for this Conference links so closely with the overarching theme of the Irish
Presidency – the theme of Stability, Jobs and Growth - and to the key economic themes of the
EU’s Europe 2020 Agenda.
“I think that Europeans everywhere are united in the hope that the economic turmoil of the
past five years will soon pass. People throughout the European Union have faced periods of
economic uncertainty – many for the first time in their lives. The European Institutions have
sought to address these challenges and to find new ways to collaborate to tackle unemployment
and to find new opportunities to make our economy competitive. We believed, in choosing the
topic for this Conference, that we were fostering a debate which will, we hope, lead to renewed
action. We have seen that a diverse range of actions are needed. There is no single challenge
and no single cure.
“When the Informal EPSCO Council was held in Dublin, in February, we discussed an array
of initiatives as diverse as the youth guarantee, employment in the ICT sector and I chaired a
workshop on encouraging older women into the labour market. These are all aspects of
employment policy. They also impact on women’s lives and link closely with women’s
empowerment and gender equality.
“Women are diverse in their talents and diverse in their needs. During our conference, we
have heard about initiatives to foster women in employment and initiatives to foster female
entrepreneurship. We have heard about the growth potential to be derived by encouraging
greater numbers of women to remain in or return to the labour market. We have discussed
barriers to women fulfilling their full potential in the workplace and have heard of initiatives to
overcome those barriers.
“I believe that, as we leave this Conference and travel back to our daily lives, we return reenergised about the prospects for women in our own countries and in the European Union. I
hope that we might think of new opportunities for ourselves, for our daughters and for our
nieces. I hope that we might bring new insights into our work as policy makers, as employers,
as entrepreneurs, as managers, as work colleagues, as academics, as activists.
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“We know that increasing women’s labour market participation can bring growth and, with
growth, comes greater prosperity and a reduction in the risk of poverty. What more could we
hope for as we make our journey home?
European Women’s Lobby (EWL) – Ms. Viviane Teitelbaum, President
Ms. Teitelbaum opened by welcoming the opportunity to make a contribution, noting that the
European Union has always been a pioneer in equality between men and women, and it is therefore of
great importance that this dialogue would continue. She pointed out that we have not achieved enough
yet in relation to gender equality that we cannot afford to step back.
Specifically, the EWL would like to see greater commitment on a number of issues relating to
women’s prosperity. She recommended that
•
•
gender equality be made an explicit objective of the Europe 2020 Strategy process;
•
support be given to the call for a European year for reconciling work and family matters
in 2014;
•
barriers to women’s access to the labour market are removed in order to secure women’s
economic independence, in particular to reduce the gender pay gap by 2020;
•
steps are taken to facilitate the return to work of women who have spent time out of the
labour market to care for children, or dependent or elderly family members;
•
•
pension reforms do not increase gender inequalities; and
the European Commission Strategy for Equality between Men and Women be renewed
post-2015;
investment and development take place to deliver high quality, accessible and affordable
care services across a lifecycle, including reaching and reinforcing the Barcelona criteria
Business Europe – Ms. Anu Sajavaara
Speaking for Business Europe, Ms. Sajavaara noted that it was useful to merge the two themes of
gender equality and the economy. She believes there is a need to re-brand gender equality. She
pointed out that the strong business case for women’s economic engagement has been proven, but the
challenge now is how to further disseminate that material.
Referring to discussion earlier in the event, she said she believed that it was better to have any kind of
job, rather than no job and therefore, she was of the view that there is a need to be cautious when
discussing ‘job quality’. We are now working in different ways across Europe and she argued that it
is important to recognise that temporary contracts, and also the new ways of not working full-time are
a stepping stone into the labour market.
She emphasised the importance of developing STEM skills, noting these skills are essential to open
up the world of technology to women.
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Her final point related to the role of men. She emphasised that gender equality is not taking away
from them, so there is a need to get them to understand that
“this is not a zero-sum game. If we do something to promote women, it is not taking away from
the men … we need everybody on board.”
European Trade Union Confederation – Ms. Karin Enodd
Ms. Enodd opened her comments by restating that gender equality is a fundamental human right and
that this must be a guiding principle of work on the issue.
She then told the conference that the annual survey undertaken by ETUC for International Women’s
Day 2013 reported a catalogue of worsening pay and working conditions, including an increase in
precarious work, in involuntary part-time work, in discrimination linked to pregnancy or family
responsibilities and a growing phenomenon of women silently withdrawing from the labour market.
She was of the view that having a job is not necessarily a security against poverty.
Ms. Enodd then referred to the Draft Directive on maternity leave and suggested that the lack of
progress on this issue undermines the EU’s commitment to gender equality. She suggested that
improving the protection of pregnant women and recent mothers, including guaranteeing their full
income while on maternity leave, would bring progress in reducing the gender pay gap, protecting
working mothers and encouraging women to stay at work. She commented that the process of
revision remains blocked, undermining the EU’s credibility regarding its commitment to gender
equality and women’s economic engagement. Ms. Enodd argued that this is a perfect illustration of
the need for policy coherence and called for an EU wide entitlement to paternity leave as a further key
objective of the EU strategy for gender equality.
European Union Association for Small and Medium Enterprise – UEAPME – Ms. Liz Carroll
Ms. Carroll stressed the importance of creating a suitable environment for establishing new business,
and supporting female entrepreneurs, in particular. She suggested that, at government levels, there is
a need to create framework conditions to boost economic growth and to address certain barriers, such
as tax disincentives for second earners. She recommended that flexible working be used to address
horizontal and vertical segmentation of the labour market.
Ms. Carroll also spoke of the need to challenge the prevailing culture and stressed that UEAPME is
supportive of the Commission’s call for cultural change amongst policy makers, and society at large.
Her organisation also supported the online advisory panel for women entrepreneurs, as proposed by
the Commission.
Ms. Carroll also offered positive examples of European interventions and initiatives which
specifically promote the economic engagement of women:
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•
Italy: The National Confederation of Crafts and SME’s have an agreement to promote microcredit for women, offering advice to women setting up their own businesses and helping them
to negotiate favourable financial conditions, as well as offering advice on the development of
business plans to encourage the handing over of businesses from mother to daughter.
•
Austria: The Austrian Economics Chamber, together with Social Insurance Institutions for
Entrepreneurs encourage organisations to develop business continuation contingency plans.
The aim here is to make available temporary replacement for the entrepreneur, when required –
especially, during maternity leave. It is offered free of charge to the entrepreneur.
•
Germany: Confederation of Skilled Crafts, with Federal Ministry of Families and Women
aimed at increasing numbers of women involved in the crafts industry. The focus is on raising
awareness of women currently working in the sector, in order to counter stereotypes.
European Centre of Employers and Enterprises (CEEP) - Ms. Jeanette Grenfors
The final guest speaker of the conference was Ms. Jeanette Grenfors who stressed that it was
important that policy-makers consider the gender consequences of their policies. In relation to
economic and labour market policies, she emphasised the importance of investment in human capital
in education to address skills mismatches, arguing that this will lead to a better functioning labour
market, and will create the right incentives for productivity and growth, enhance competition and
facilitate a further rise in women’s employment.
Final words – Minister of State Ms. Kathleen Lynch T.D.
As the event drew to a close, Minister of State Kathleen Lynch T.D. made the following address of
acknowledgement to all the participants:
“No successful conference is achieved without very significant work and vision. I would like to
acknowledge the vision of my Gender Equality team and the Equality team in DG Justice in the
European Commission who shared the belief that the time was ripe for a conference on
women’s economic engagement. Some other Member States working together in the
Commission’s High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming were also very supportive.
“The Commission actively encouraged us in this pursuit, helping us to plan this event,
providing generous Progress funding. Without “Progress” funding, this conference would
not have taken place. As you may know, Progress funding has facilitated major actions and
research across to foster gender equality, employment and social protection over the years.
“Other DGs of the Commission - DG Employment and DG Enterprise - have also made an
input as has the FEMM Committee of the European Parliament, the Gender Institute and
Eurofound.
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“We have received wisdom and insights from over 30 speakers and moderators, with many
lively responses from our participants. Agreeing to speak at, or moderate a session is a major
commitment and the Irish Presidency is very grateful to you for giving so generously of your
time. A good event needs a good and responsive audience and I think you have surpassed
yourselves in your attention and inputs.
“To ensure that everything ran smoothly, we have drawn from a platoon of lieutenants from my
Gender Equality team and from our Department’s ultra efficient EU Presidency Logistics
team. They were admirably backed up by many reserves drawn from across Equality Division
and the wider Department and elsewhere to ensure that the past two days went smoothly.
“On my behalf, and on behalf of Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr. Alan Shatter, I
would like to thank you all for your efforts. I must thank the trusty team from Brussels – our
interpreters - who enabled us to communicate clearly for the past two days.
“Finally I would particularly like to thank our distinguished Lithuanian Minister, Ms
Algimanta Pabedinskienė for taking time to be with us as our Presidency trio partner and
successor. Our two teams share warm bonds and I know we all wish you and your team well
for the final semester of 2013.
“Minister, distinguished speakers and moderators, dear colleagues and friends, our efficient
background teams, thank you for coming to Dublin, thank you for your active participation,
thank you for making this a successful event and thank you in advance for all your future work
to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the economy.
- 78 -
- 79 -
Annexe 1
Conference Programme
DAY ONE - MONDAY, 29 APRIL 2013
Conference Opening Session
08:45 – 09:40
Moderated by Ms. Kathleen Lynch T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for
Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People
Opening remarks by:
Mr. Alan Shatter, T.D Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence,
Mr. Richard Bruton T.D., Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Dr. Daniela Bankier, on behalf of the European Commission
Mr. Mikael Gustafsson MEP, Chair, the FEMM Committee, European
Parliament
Session 1: More Women in the Workforce – Making Sense for Business and the Economy
Session moderated by Mr. Aongus Hegarty, President and General Manager, Dell
09:40 – 10:30
EMEA
Speakers for first part:
Dr. Willem Adema, OECD
Ms. Wallis Goelen – European Commission DG Employment, Social
Affairs and Inclusion
Dr. Daniela Bankier, Chef de Division, DG Justice, European
Commission
10:30 – 10:55
10:55 – 12:30
Coffee Break
Session 1 continued – moderated by Ms. Kathleen Lynch T.D., Minister of State
with responsibility for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People
Speakers for second part:
Mr. Tom Bevers – Chair of the Employment Committee
Mr. Thomas Dominique – Chair of the Social Protection Committee
Ms. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO 20-first
Followed by discussion on Session 1 with all speakers
12:30 – 13:00
Keynote address: Mr. László Andor, Commissioner for Employment,
European Commission
13:00 – 14:30
Lunch
Session 2:
Women Returning to Work – A “Win-Win” for Women and for the
Economy
Session moderated by European Parliament FEMM Committee Chair, Mikael
14:30 – 16:00
Gustafsson
Speakers include:
Dr. Erika Mezger, Deputy Director of EUROFOUND
Ms. Antia Wiersma, Manager Knowledge Dev & Policy Advice, Inst. on
Gender Equality and Women’s History (NL)
Ms. Dolores James, Centre Manager, Ballyfermot IT Training Centre and
‘Women’s Way to Work Programme’ (an EU/ESF supported initiative)
Ms. Jennifer D’Arcy, Community and Education Programmes
Coordinator, Bray Area Partnership (an EU/ESF supported initiative)
Ms. Rachel Mooney, HR Director, Vodafone Ireland
Coffee Break
16:00 – 16:20
Session 3:
Challenges for Women in the Workplace – Working Together to
Overcome the Barriers
Session moderated by Ms. Renee Dempsey, CEO, Equality Authority and CEO
16:20 – 17:45
Des. Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission
Speakers include:
Professor Francesca Bettio, Professor of Economics, University of Siena
Ms.Muriel Bissieres – European Commission DG Justice
Ms. Cecilia Ronan, CAO and EMEA Citi Service Centre Head, Citi
- 80 -
Ms. Margot Slattery, Managing Director, Sodexo Prestige Ireland
20:00 – 22:30
Conference Dinner – Royal Hospital, Kilmainham
DAY TWO - TUESDAY, 30 APRIL 2013
Session 4:
Towards the Top – Advancing Women in the Workplace
Session moderated by Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality, Ms.
08:45 – 10:15
Virginija Langbakk
Speakers include:
Lithuanian Minister of Social Security and Labour, Mrs. Algimanta
Pabedinskiene
Dr. Daniela Bankier, Chef de Division, DG Justice, European
Commission
Ms. Geraldine Huse, Vice President, Procter and Gamble UK & Ireland
Dr. Ruth Sealy, Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the
International Centre for Women Leaders, Cranfield School of
Management
Ms. Mirella Visser, founder, Centre for Inclusive Leadership
Coffee Break
10:15 – 10:30
Session 5:
Striking out Alone – Women and Entrepreneurship
Session moderated by Ms. Jennifer Condon, Manager, Software, Internationally
10:30 – 11:50
Traded Services and Public Procurement, Enterprise Ireland
Speakers include:
Mr. Marko Curavic - European Commission DG ENTR on the
‘Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan’
Ms. Rosaleen Blair, founder and CEO of Alexander Mann Solutions
(tbc)
Ms. Paula Fitzsimons, founder of “Going for Growth” an EU/ESF
funded project
Ms. Elaine Coughlan, Atlantic Bridge
Ms. Ceara McNeela, Asgard Industrial Systems Ltd.
Conference Closing Session
11:50 – 12:35
Session moderated by Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, Equality
Mental Health and Older People Ms. Kathleen Lynch, T.D.
Speakers include:
Ms. Viviane Teitelbaum, President of the European Women’s Lobby
Ms. Anu Sajavaara, Business Europe
Ms. Karin Enodd, President of Women’s Committee, ETUC
Ms. Liz Carroll, UEAPME
Ms. Jeanette Grenfors, CEEP
Final words – Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, Equality, Mental
Health and Older People, Ms. Kathleen Lynch, T.D.
12:45
13:10
14:30
Reception and formal Signature of the Trio Presidency Declaration on Gender
Equality (Portrait Gallery, Dublin Castle)
Lunch
Conference Close
- 81 -
ANNEXE II
Conference Feedback
All delegates were asked to complete an evaluation sheet at the end of the Conference. The questions asked
the participants to rate the Conference per themed session; the overall quality of the Conference; and their
assessment of the content and issues covered by speakers and presentations.
Feedback was also requested on perceptions concerning the overall organisation of the event, as well as how
applicable the knowledge and information received would be in the work of delegates in promoting greater
gender equality in the economic sphere.
Almost 130 participants returned their evaluation sheet, although not all completed each question. Each
respondent was asked to rate each session on a scale of Five (good) to One (Poor) and was also asked to
comment on their overall assessment of the event, its organisation and relevance to their work.
The satisfaction rating of the Conference was very high, with a satisfaction rating of 93 per cent for the
“overall organisation of the event” and of 87.2 per cent for “overall quality of the conference”.
The most positive responses in relation to the session topics were for Session 4 (Towards the Top –
Advancing Women in the Workplace) with a satisfaction rating of 89.3% and Session 5 (Striking out Alone
– Women and Entrepreneurship) which had a satisfaction rating of over 84%.
As the table overleaf shows, fifteen of the nineteen questions contained in the questionnaire drew a
satisfaction rating of over 80 per cent, while the remaining four all exceeded 77%.
The full analysis is contained in tabular form in the following page.
- 82 -
Conference Participants' Satisfaction Ratings
Percentage of responses showing grading
4
3
2
Number of
responses
5
1
Mean grade
Satisfaction
rating
117
26.5
40.2
27.3
5.1
0.9
3.9
77.3%
122
23.0
45.9
27.0
3.3
0.8
3.9
77.4%
125
32.0
41.6
18.4
7.2
0.8
4.0
79.4%
120
31.7
47.5
16.7
4.2
0.0
4.1
81.3%
114
52.6
41.2
6.1
0.0
0.0
4.5
89.3%
95
45.3
32.6
20.0
2.1
0.0
4.2
84.4%
130
47.7
42.3
8.5
1.5
0.0
4.4
87.2%
129
41.1
36.4
17.1
3.8
1.6
4.1
82.3%
129
127
127
28.7
40.2
33.1
44.2
40.9
40.1
23.3
15.7
20.5
3.1
2.4
6.3
0.8
0.8
0.0
4.0
4.2
4.0
79.4%
83.5%
80.0%
128
34.4
39.8
25.0
0.0
0.8
4.1
82.7%
129
127
126
70.0
49.6
29.5
37.0
31.0
36.5
0.8
11.8
27.0
0.8
1.6
4.8
0.0
0.0
0.8
4.7
4.4
3.9
93.3%
86.9%
78.4%
125
54.4
34.4
9.6
1.6
0.0
4.4
88.3%
125
127
40.8
37.0
42.4
44.1
13.6
15.0
2.4
3.1
0.8
0.8
4.2
4.1
84.0%
82.7%
127
33.9
45.7
17.3
1.6
1.6
4.1
81.7%
4.16
83%
SATISFACTION WITH EACH SESSION
Conference Opening Session
Session 1 : More Women in the Workforce – Making Sense for
Business and the Economy
Session 2 : Women Returning to Work – A “Win-Win” for
Women and for the Economy
Session 3 : Challenges for Women in the Workplace – Working
Together to Overcome the Barriers
Session 4 : Towards the Top – Advancing Women in the
Workplace
Session 5 : Striking out Alone – Women and Entrepreneurship
ASSESSMENT OF OVERALL CONFERENCE
Overall quality of the Conference
Event Content: I now better understand and feel well informed
about the issue of women’s economic engagement
RELEVANCE TO PARTICIPANTS' WORK
Presentations
Documents and information provided
Networking opportunity
Exchange of information and experience on the issue of women’s
economic engagement
PARTICIPANTS' VIEWS ON ORGANISATION OF CONFERENCE
Overall event organisation
Timing of the Sessions
Time for discussions
Information and support provided before the event
VIEWS ON SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF CONFERENCE
Did this Irish EU Presidency Conference match your needs?
Did you gain relevant knowledge and information?
Will you be able to apply such knowledge and information in your
work?
ESTIMATED OVERALL RATING ACROSS ALL OBSERVATIONS
Note: This is based on an analysis by Gender Equality Division of all questionnaires completed and returned to the organising team
May-13
- 83 -
III
PARTICIPANTS REGISTERED FOR THE CONFERENCE
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
SPEAKERS AND MODERATORS
Bruton
Shatter
Pabedinskiene
Lynch
Adema
Andor
Bankier
Bettio
Bevers
Bissieres
Blair
Carroll
Condon
Coughlan
Curavic
D'Arcy
Dempsey
Dominique
Enodd
SURNAME
Richard
Alan
Algimanta
Kathleen
Willem
László
Daniela
Francesca
Tom
Muriel
Rosaleen
Liz
Jennifer
Elaine
Marko
Jennifer
Renee
Thomas
Karin
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Employment
Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence
Lithuanian Minister for Social Security and Labour
Min/State Disability,Equality,Mental Health,Older People
OECD
European Commissioner for Employment
European Commission - DG Justice
University of Siena
Employment Committee of European Union
European Commission - DG Justice
Alexander Mann
ISME (UEAPME)
Enterprise Ireland
Atlantic Bridge
European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry
Bray Area Partnership
Equality Authority
Social Protection Committee of European Union
ETUC
FIRST NAME
Fitzsimons
Goelen
Grenfors
Gustafsson
Hegarty
Huse
James
Langbakk
Mc Neela
Mezger
Mooney
Moreau
Ronan
Sajavaara
Sealy
Slattery
Teitelbaum
Visser
Wiersma
Wittenberg-Cox
ORGANISATION
SURNAME
Paula
Wallis
Jeanette
Mikael
Aongus
Geraldine
Dolores
Virginija
Ceara
Erika
Rachel
Pauline
Cecilia
Anu
Ruth
Margot
Viviane
Mirella
Antia
Avivah
Fitzsimons Consulting
Eureopean Commission _ DG Employment
CEEP
FEMM Committee, European Parliament
Dell EMEA
Procter and Gamble (UK and Irl) P&G
Ballyfermot IT Training Centre
European Institute for Gender Equality
Asgard Industrial Systems Ltd
Eurofound
Vodafone Ireland
Director, Gender Equality Division, Ireland
Citi
Business Europe
Int. Centre for Women's Leadership, Cranfield School
Sodexho Prestige Ireland
European Women's Lobby
Centre for Inclusive Leadership
Atria, Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History
20-First
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
DELEGATES REPRESENTING EU MEMBER STATES AND CANDIDATE COUNTRIES
Selden
Sardadvar
Fehringer
De Baets
Sissoko
Pernot
Ivanova
Angelov
Prohaska
Štimac Radin
Simek
Spoljaric
Pilavaki
Vanova
Barbara
Karin
Eva
Véronique
Salimata
Annemie
Irina
Iskren
Maria
Helena
Ivana
Zrinka
Ioanna
Vera
Austria
Austria
Austria
Belgium
Belgium
Belgium
Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Croatia
Croatia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
McKenna
Moreau
O'Leary
Devine
Sandom
Palma
Piatti
Falcomata
Rozite-Torpe
Ašeradens
Raciborska
Bacevicius
Jurseniene
Juozapaviciene
84
Conan
Pauline
Patrick
Padraig
Louise
Michele
Laura
Elena Mariagrazia
Lauma
Arvils
Zanda
Evaldas
Vanda
Danguole
Ireland
Ireland
Ireland
Ireland
Ireland
Italy
Italy
Italy
Latvia
Latvia
Latvia
Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
DELEGATES REPRESENTING EU MEMBER STATES AND CANDIDATE COUNTRIES (Continued)
Vana
Nestaval
Rostock-Jensen
Andersen
Nour Magnusson
Sander
Toodu
Keel
Raevaara
Alho
Lönn
Rinkenbach
Laigo
Richez
Ibrahimi
Trajkovska
Politov
Dahs
Fischer
Sikorski
Tremos
Papadopoulou
Agoritsa
Géher
Kormosné Debreceni
Szalai
Tomas
Frantisek
Iben
Agnete
Susanne
Käthlin
Anu
Kati
Eeva
Sari
Hillevi
Alexis
Laurence
Vincent
Ibrahim
Biljana
Davor
Waltraud
Thomas
Manuela
Dimosthenis
Vasiliki
Christina
Mariann
Zsuzsanna
Piroska Mária
Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Denmark
Denmark
Denmark
Estonia
Estonia
Estonia
Finland
Finland
Finland
France
France
France
FYR Macedonia
FYR Macedonia
FYR Macedonia
Germany
Germany
Germany
Greece
Greece
Greece
Hungary
Hungary
Hungary
Speltz
Bezzina
Spiteri
Wansink
Sørlien
Dam
Ksieniewicz
Kapcrzak
Kryczka
Martins
Fatima
Curado
Botezatu
Rusu
Roxana- Elena
Jacková
Kulasikova
Robnik
Plaza Martin
Barroso Barrero
Olsson Blandy
Wreder
Yumus
Ozkan Baltat
Bozdemir
Bell
Marshall
Bunyan
Hubler
Gryszko
Izsak
Jacobs
Catherine
Gabrielle
Magdalena
Daniel
Francis
European Parliament Information Office in Ireland
EUROFOUND
European Institute for Gender Equality
European Commission Representation in Ireland
European Parliament Information Office in Ireland
Collins
Cravero
Drieskens
Mary
Guillaume
Annemie
European Women's Lobby
Business Europe
Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU
Claudine
Doriana
Therese
Peter
Petter
Maren Anna
Monika
Jacqueline
Justyna
Sónia
Duarte
Ana
Sorin Ioan
Olivia Cătălina
Pintea
Mária
Zuzana
Sonja
Maria Carmen
Jesus
Tanja
Malin
Akin
Demet
Basak
Rebecca
David
Luxembourg
Malta
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Norway
Poland
Poland
Poland
Portugal
Portugal
Portugal
Romania
Romania
Romania
Slovakia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Spain
Sweden
Sweden
Turkey
Turkey
Turkey
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
DELEGATES FROM THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS
Landon
Nolan
O'Connor
Torok
Philip
Barbara
Harry
Éva
Council Secretariat
European Commission Representation in Ireland
European Parliament Information Office in Ireland
Commissioner Andor's Office
DELEGATES FROM EUROPEAN CIVIL SOCIETY
King
Panzeri
85
Sarah
Paola
ETUC
Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
DELEGATES FROM NORTHERN IRELAND
Carey
Collins
Floyd
Patricia
Evelyn
Jane
Northern Ireland
Equality Commission for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Taylor
Trimble
Power
Mulcahy
Reid
Drew
Braiden
Lawless
McGauran
O'Driscoll
Byrne
Smith
Carbery
Clear
Grant
Kinane
Devin
Byrne
Cunningham
Derwin
McPhillips
Talbot
Gordon
McCormack
Ryan
Walsh
Kinsella
Copeland
Curran
Hurley
Dunworth
Kelly
Black
Campbell
Doyle
McVeigh
Hearns
Hutchinson
Mc Breen
Nolan
Anne-Marie
Breda
Ann
Maire
Ciaran
Eileen
Olive
Catherine
Anne-Marie
Bernice
Miriam
Paul
Deirdre
Oliver
Caroline
Angie
Ingrid
Clodagh
Noreen
Ann
Sinead
Maria
Joan
Brian
Simonetta
Jim
Mary
Sinead
Patricia
Mary
Deirdre
Deirdre
Angela
Niamh
Liz
Brenda
Aine
Joe
Orla
Helena
AMT & Associates
An Post
Asgard Industrial Systems Ltd
ASTI
Ballyfermot IT Training Centre
Centre for Women in Science and Engineering Research
Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Trinity College
Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Trinity College
Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Trinity College
Citi
City Analysts Ltd.
DCU (IBEC Diversity)
Defence Forces
Defence Forces
DELL Ireland
DELL Ireland
DELL Ireland
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Social Protection
Department of Social Protection
Department of Social Protection
Department of Social Protection
Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Dept. of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Dept. of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Dept. of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government
Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government
Dept. of Finance
Dept. of Finance
Dept. of Finance
Dept. of Finance
Dept. of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Dept. of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Dept. of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Dept. of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Law
Mullan
Price
Elizabeth
Clare
Denise
Equality Commission for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Queens University Belfast
Etain
Karen
Rita
Breda
Kara
David
Sally Anne
Rhona
Sheila
Kelli
Nicola
Teresa
Gemma
Maura
Cathleen
Ciara
Eamon
Neringa
Vidmantas
Tara
Louise
Siobhan
Linda
Lynn
Denise
Claire
Sheila
Cepta
Emma-Jayne
Suzanne
Jenny
Ann
Sandra
Catherine
Claire
Laura
Loraine
Áine
Orla
Rebecca
Fitzsimons Consulting
FORFÁS
Galway County and City Enterprise Board Ltd
Galway County and City Enterprise Board Ltd
IBEC
ICTU
ICTU
ICTU Women's Committee
Independent Researcher and Consultant
Institute of Directors in Ireland
Institute of Directors in Ireland
Institute of Public Administration
Irish Research Council
Irish Women Lawyers Association
Kilbarrack CDP
Labour Party TD
Limerick CEB
Embassy of Lithuania
Embassy of Lithuania
Longford Women's Link
Longford Women's Link
Migrant Rights Council of Ireland
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
DELEGATES FROM IRELAND
Ryan
Hynes
Guinan
Fox
McGann
Joyce
Kinahan
McEleney
Quinn
O'Malley
O'Sullivan
Casserly
Irvine
Butler
O'Neill
Conway
Ryan
Gaidyte
Purlys
Farrell
Lovett
O'Donoghue
Brennan
Carvill
Charlton
Cummings
Dickson
Dowling
Geraghty
Griffin
Heath
Irwin
Kennedy
Lynch
Mahon
Maloney
Mulligan
Ní Léime
O'Connor
Ryan
86
SURNAME
O'Hara
McLoughlin
Cullen
Dixon
Carberry
Comerford
Cray
O hAodha
Blake
Carron
Hall
Jackson
Kavanagh
Normanly
Hoey
Ryan
O'Sullivan
Sinnamon
Bond
Hegarty
Claxton
O'Connor
Carroll
Griffin
Hanratty
Burke
Condon
FIRST NAME
Conan
Ambrose
Paul
Gary
Jean
Shirley
Natasha
Ferghal
Helen
Neil
Aedan
Yvonne
Lorraine
Patricia
Jean
Aideen
Jean
Julie
Laurence
Maria
Sarah
Bernie
Ann
Mary
Ann
Nina
Nora
ORGANISATION
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
DELEGATES FROM IRELAND (Continued)
Dept. of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Dept. of Health
Dept. of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Dept. of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Dept. of Public Expenditure and Reform
Dept. of Public Expenditure and Reform
Dept. of Public Expenditure and Reform
Dept. of Public Expenditure and Reform
Dept. of the Taoiseach
Dept. of the Taoiseach
Dept. of the Taoiseach
Dept. of the Taoiseach
Dept. of the Taoiseach
Dublin Bus (IBEC Diversity)
Dublin Chamber of Commerce
Dublin Chamber of Commerce
Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland
Equality Authority
Equality Strategies (IBEC Diversity)
ESB
ESB (IBEC Diversity)
ESB Union (ICTU Women's Committee)
ESU Energy Services Union
ESU Energy Services Union
FÁS
FÁS
Sherlock
Travers
Wall
Yonkov
Buckley
Duvvury
Dawe
Fehily-Hobbs
Lynes
Murphy
Healy
Byrne
Kelly
Leamy
Morris
Rickard
McDermott
Reynolds
McAvoy
O'Riordan
Gray
O'Connor
O'Hagan
Twohig
Delaney
Morgan
Sothern
Marie
Áine
Liz
Nusha
Lucy-Ann
Nata
Olwen
Mary
Julia
Una
Sandra
Frances
Nuala
Denis
Catherine
James
Finola
Brigid
Sandra
Jacqui
Breda
Pat
Clare
Cara
Rosemary
Liv
Emma
ORGANISATION
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National Women's Council of Ireland (NCWI)
National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)
National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)
Network Ireland
Network Ireland
Network Ireland
Network Ireland (Branch Support & Expansion Officer)
O2 Telefonica (IBEC Diversity)
OPEN
Pobal
Pobal
Pobal
Rehab (IBEC Diversity)
Revenue Commissioners
Social Justice Ireland
University College Cork
University College Cork
University of Limerick
University of Limerick
University of Limerick
Vodafone Ireland
Women Mean Business Publishing
Women Mean Business Publishing
Women Mean Business Publishing
SCIC INTERPRETERS
Baillieux-Cronin
Daza Muniz
Gambara
Kaempfe-Clew
Manning
Francine
Jorge
Isabella
Sabine
Ciaran
Benzies
Bowe
Bracken
Brophy
Byrne
Carter
Clarke
Colgan
Cowan
Creedon
Marian
Gerry
Davina
Adrian
Claire
Pamela
Annette
Kay
Eimear
Assumpta
Meier
Mimmi
Ricci
Rollin
Santasusana Portella
Helene
Marco
Cristina
Susan
Gemma
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND EQUALITY AND IRISH PRESIDENCY SUPPORT TEAM
Kirby
Laycock
Melwani
Mitchell
Mooney
O Ceallaigh
O'Connor
O'Donohoe
O'Driscoll
87 Roche
Ray
Paul
Colleen
Jennifer
Elizabeth
Irial
David
Chris
Aileen
Anne
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
SURNAME
FIRST NAME
ORGANISATION
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND EQUALITY AND IRISH PRESIDENCY SUPPORT TEAM (Continued)
Elmonem
Fitzgerald
Hall
Hogan
Kane
Kavanagh
Kelly
Kenny
Róisín
Eileen
Lorraine
Therese
Fiona
Louise
Andrew
Neville
Shabani
Sugrue
Toolan
Ward
Wiggins
Woods
Wray
88
Jihan
Daniel
Anita
Regina
Patricia
Rachel
Caitriona
89
90
This conference report is supported by the
European Union Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity - PROGRESS (2007-2013).
This programme is implemented by the European Commission. It was established to financially
support the implementation of the objectives of the European Union in the employment, social
affairs and equal opportunities area, and thereby contribute to the achievement of the Europe
2020 Strategy goals in these fields.
The seven-year Programme targets all stakeholders who can help shape the development of
appropriate and effective employment and social legislation and policies, across the EU-27,
EFTA-EEA and EU candidate and pre-candidate countries.
For more information see: http://ec.europa.eu/progress
91