WOMEN IN Ireland live longer but continue to earn less than men, and continue to be under-represented across a range of sectors in the workplace and public life.
The details were published in the Central Statistics Office's report Women and Men in Ireland 2010. Life expectancy for women was 81.6 years in 2006, compared with 76.8 years for men. Women's annual income was about 70 per cent of that earned by men in 2008, though after adjusting for time worked, women's hourly earnings were about 90 per cent of men's, the report says.
In 2008, men had an average income of €35,966, while the average income for women was €25,077.
The difference between male and female incomes also increased with age. There were 863,000 women and 996,100 men employed here last year. Just over one-fifth of the women were employed in clerical and secretarial occupations, compared with only 6 per cent of the men.
Professional occupations were the most gender balanced, with 51 per cent female representation.
Men continued to outnumber women in all national and regional decision-making structures in Ireland in 2010.
Women accounted for one in three members of State boards and one in five government ministers. Men accounted for about two-thirds of Vocational Education Committee members, and over four-fifths of representatives in local authorities.
In contrast, men are under-represented in primary and secondary teaching.
Women accounted for 82.8 per cent of teachers at second level in the school year 2007-2008. In 2007-2008, 17.2 per cent of primary teachers were men. At third level, however, 61.4 per cent of academic staff were male. Men outnumbered women in all EU states for which information was available, except the Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania.
Four out of five of the almost 127,000 workers in the health service last year were women, accounting for 91.8 per cent of nurses, 85.2 per cent of managers and administrators and 83.5 per cent of health and social care professionals.
Women make up just over one-third of medical and dental consultants, however. Men have a higher rate of employment, but also a higher rate of unemployment.
The employment rate for men in Ireland stood at about 75 per cent over recent years, but in 2009 it “plummeted” to 67.3 per cent and dropped again last year to 64.5 per cent, the report said. The employment rate for women was 56.4 per cent last year.
Of the 50,139 people in receipt of carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit in 2009, almost four out of five (79.6 per cent) were women.
The report said the “vast majority” of those looking after home and family are women. It also notes that more men are emigrating, and that men are more likely to die young, mainly due to road crashes and the high rate of male suicide.
On education, men leave school earlier and women are more highly qualified. In education, the early school-leaving rate among women aged 18-24 in 2009 was 8.2 per cent, compared to a rate for males of 14.4 per cent.
Higher numbers of girls took English, Irish, French, biology, home economics and art at higher level in the 2010 Leaving Certificate, while boys had higher rates of participation in technical subjects. Over 89 per cent of Leaving Certificate students taking higher-level design and communication graphics, construction studies and engineering were male.
Women are more likely to have a third-level qualification, with over half (52 per cent) of women aged 25-34 having a third-level qualification, compared to 39 per cent of men in this age group.
One area where men outnumber women is in the prison population: 10,865 people were imprisoned in 2009, of whom 10.7 per cent were women.
BY THE NUMBERS
CSO STATISTICS
8.2%Early school leaving rate for females
14.4%Early school leaving rate for males
10,865people were imprisoned in 2009
10.7per cent were women.
45men and
10women were victims of murder or manslaughter in 2008
16.7%Unemployment rate for men
9.8%Unemployment rate for women
81.6Life expectancy for women
76.8Life expectancy for men