A list of 150 women willing and able to serve on company boards has been compiled to try to persuade companies to recruit more of them at this level, writes Dick Ahlstrom.
A new publication launched earlier this week puts paid to the strange notion that women and science don't mix. The Talent Bank directory lists 150 women with the skills and experience to serve on company boards in the scientific, technological and industrial arena or any board.
The Talent Bank features profiles of each individual with details of careers to date, education and special expertise. Women in Technology and Science (WITS) put it together after an 18-month trawl across the State looking for suitable candidates willing to serve on public or private sector boards.
The official launch and the release of the Talent Bank on CD-ROM took place last Monday but WITS has already circulated 700 copies to TDs, local authorities, State bodies and companies. It is hoped the CD-ROM version will have an even wider circulation, according to Eucharia Meehan, chairperson of WITS and manager of a key research-funding agency, the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions.
"We describe it as a directory of expert women scientists, engineers and technologists who are willing to serve on management boards," she says. "We went through a very lengthy exercise to select women for the directory."
The Talent Bank is designed to combat what WITS describes as "institutionalised sexism" when it comes to board appointments, particularly in the science, engineering and technology (SET) area. Women should make up at least 40 per cent of any State board according to a target set by government in 1991, but this target has been reached on only a handful of boards according to figures compiled by WITS.
The situation is even worse in the SET area where the average is just 27 per cent women on boards that have an involvement in technology, with no change in gender balance over the seven years from 1997. Two bodies, the Ordinance Survey of Ireland and the Dublin Transportation Office, have no women on their boards.
WITS launched the Talent Bank project in May 2003 with support from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform's funding programme, Equality Women.
There are more than 150 women capable of serving on boards, but many refuse because of time commitments, says Meehan. "A lot of women would have been conservative when looking at commitments. We did believe that if you were approaching males you wouldn't meet the same reticence," she adds.
The lack of any progress towards balance is "a very sad reflection on things", says Meehan. "The overall participation has fallen. This is a worrying development given the Government targets."
Norway had spent some years trying to boost female representation on boards and had taken a "softly, softly" approach. Lack of progress eventually encouraged Norway to introduce legislation that will force a 40 per cent representation from next year, she says.
"All avenues at this stage must be explored. This has been an agenda item for a number of years. The statistics speak for themselves, there has been no progress," she adds.
Moving the Talent Bank onto CD-ROM means WITS will be able to update the list annually or biannually, according to Talent Bank project manager, Elizabeth Creed. "They can't say they don't know any women" when selecting for boards, she says.
WITS put the book together to be proactive and to help board nominators. "We either wait until the next century or act now to do something about the composition of boards," she says.
"It is not acceptable any more not to appoint women. Ten years ago nobody would have noticed," she adds. "We should be able to do that without legal requirements. It should be done by common sense. Mixed boards make better boards, mixed teams make better teams."
Copies of the Talent Bank directory are available free of charge by writing to Talent Bank, PO Box 3783, Dublin 4. E-mail: wits@iol.ie
www.witsireland.com