Sir, - So the Task Force on Unemployment believes that the Community Employment Programme has "shown considerable defects" (according to Padraig Yeates, December 29th) due to the fact that 32 per cent of places have gone to other disadvantaged groups, including lone parents and spouses of the long term unemployed - in other words, women.
Women's groups and self help groups for lone parents campaigned for years for access to State fended training and work experience programmes on the basis of equity. For those who want to hear, the feedback is very positive. Not only are women participants developing new skills; they are also making an essential financial contribution to their families, many of whom have been living in conditions of poverty and exclusion for years. Moreover, there are waiting lists for places on the CE programme in many disadvantaged communities.
Women's participation in the labour market has long been used as a weapon against us. The arguments go something like this; "If there were less married women working, more young men could get work", "she doesn't need to work, her husband has a good job", or "she should stay at home and mind her children".
Perhaps equality of opportunity is viewed by some in this society as a defective principle. The current unemployment crisis has its roots in this type of flawed thinking. We desperately need new solutions based on imaginative, creative leadership, which can rise above old rigid. gender biased notions as we approach the 21st century.
We await developments with interest. Yours, etc.,
Chairwoman,
National Women's Council of Ireland,
32 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2.