Goals, targets and accountability are essential if commitments are to be implemented, writes Anne-Marie McGauran.
Although there have been considerable changes in the position of women in society in the past 30 years, a number of significant gender inequalities remain, particularly in relation to women's access to power. Only 13.5 per cent of TDs are women and only 2 per cent of the chief executives of Ireland's largest companies are women.
The poor representation of women in positions of power is not surprising when the implementation of explicit government commitments to gender equality in the National Development Plan 2000-2006 is examined. A recent report published by the Policy Institute in TCD shows that many of these commitments are not being implemented fully.
The NDP provides funding of €51 billion to develop transport and health infrastructure, industry, training and social inclusion and it requires a gender equality perspective to be incorporated into all programmes and policies funded through it. This strategy, known as gender mainstreaming, requires NDP policies to be assessed as they are developed, implemented and evaluated, to ensure that the outcomes of the policies promote gender equality.
The NDP includes a number of specific requirements to promote this commitment to gender equality. For example, equal opportunities are to be criteria when selecting NDP projects for funding. Gender impact assessment forms outlining any gender inequalities in a policy area, as well as mechanisms to address these, are also required. For example, when funding sports facilities, commitments could be made to fund a range of amenities, covering sports which men are most likely to play, such as football, and also sports which women are most likely to engage in, such as aerobics and swimming.
To assess the extent to which gender equality has been incorporated into NDP policies, indicators to measure the impact of NDP spending on women and men are also to be collected. Building on the above example, this would involve collecting data to see how many women and men are availing of sports amenities funded by the NDP.
The NDP also provides a number of structural supports to promote gender equality. These include a requirement for gender balance on the monitoring committees which oversee NDP spending and having an equal opportunities representative on each committee. Two support units are also to be set up to advise policymakers on gender equality issues.
However, the TCD Policy Institute report shows that progress on the implementation of these well-thought-out commitments is uneven. Two units to support policymakers to carry out gender mainstreaming were set up - one in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and one in the Department of Education and Science.
When considering how gender equality is being incorporated into NDP programmes, 37 per cent of all measures include equal opportunities in project selection funding criteria, but 45 per cent of measures do not. Gender impact assessment forms were completed for 75 per cent of NDP measures where this was required, but only 23 per cent of these forms include commitments to alter policies to ensure greater gender equality in their outcomes. Some 44 per cent of NDP measures have indicators broken down by gender, but 24 per cent have none.
The implementation of the structural supports for gender mainstreaming is also uneven. Equal opportunities representatives have been appointed to all NDP monitoring committees, but gender balance on the committees is not very good, with only one committee reaching a 40 per cent representation of women, as recommended.
It appears that some of the easier NDP commitments to promote gender equality, such as collecting data and setting up support units, have been implemented. However, the more difficult commitments, such as using equal opportunities as criteria for allocation of funding, altering policies to promote gender equality and changing the gender composition of decision-making bodies are being less comprehensively implemented.
One reason for this is the absence of incentives or sanctions in the NDP to promote implementation of the gender equality commitments.
In addition, the NDP has no specific measurable goals to aim for in terms of gender equality,and accountability for implementing gender mainstreaming is very diffuse, as it rests with the monitoring committees for each NDP programme rather than with specific senior managers.
The National Strategy for Women, a cross-cutting policy currently being developed, provides an opportunity for the implementation of gender equality commitments in both the NDP and overall in government policy to be strengthened.
This strategy, which is being developed by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in conjunction with the social partners and eight other government departments, could usefully progress gender equality by:
asking each department and agency to include a commitment in their strategy statements actively to promote gender equality (as currently exists in the strategy statement for the Department of Education and Science);
including specific measurable goals and timeframes for gender equality in these strategy statements;
and allocating responsibility for meeting these goals to specific senior managers.
Goals, targets and accountability are key prerequisites for the implementation of government commitments to gender equality.
Including these in the National Strategy for Women would allow remaining gender inequalities in Ireland, including those relating to women's access to power, to be more comprehensively addressed.
The report, Plus ça Change? . . . Gender Mainstreaming of the Irish National Development Plan, by Dr Anne-Marie McGauran, is available from the Policy Institute, Trinity College, Dublin.
Dr Anne-Marie McGauran is a former head of the NDP Gender Equality Unit in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. She is currently working as a research officer at the Institute of Public Administration.