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Gender Equality

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Ceisteanna (466)

Niamh Smyth

Ceist:

466. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Education the progress made on the equality objectives of her Department specifically in relation to women. [11070/22]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

My Department is committed to fostering a culture that fully supports equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, is reflective of Irish society and ensures an environment that promotes equality, prevents discrimination and protects the human rights of staff.

One of the main aims of my Department’s Gender Balance Action Plan is to address gender balance at senior levels in the organisation. The Plan aims to ensure women and men are assigned an equal share of high visibility positions across the Department.  It also develops initiatives to support middle managers to ensure a strong female leadership pipeline for the future. It provides for unconscious bias training and ensures the organisational culture is supportive of work-life balance.  

At the most senior levels, my Department has achieved gender balance on the Management Board with a 50/50 female: male composition.  54% of principal officers in my Department are female. The Department’s involvement with the 30% Club has facilitated annual participation in the IMI 30% Club Network Mentor Programme to develop potential female senior leaders. The Department’s Human Resources Unit also participates on the Gender Pay Gap Inter-departmental Working Group. My Department will shortly draft its new People Strategy which will contain further measures to build  and enhance existing equality objectives specifically in relation to women.

Across the eleven state boards under the aegis of my Department, just over 53% of the total number of posts were held by women. In relation to the Government’s target to achieve 40% representation of each gender on all boards, six of the eleven boards were achieving this target. Three of the boards had over 60% female representation and two had less than 40% female representation. 

Within the national curriculum across all levels, a core value is inclusivity and diversity. The curriculum at all levels, is for all learners, from all backgrounds, regardless of gender, socio-economic background, race or creed.

My Department’s STEM Education Policy Statement 2017–2026 sets out the ambitious goals and actions required to achieve and improve the STEM education experience and outcomes for all learners. A Gender Balance group has been established to address the issue of gender balance in STEM, the barriers that exist, and to look to create inclusive educational experiences for all learners but with an initial focus on female participation in STEM. A Report ‘Review of Literature to Identify a Set of Effective Interventions for Addressing Gender Balance in STEM in Early Years, Primary and Post-Primary Education Settings’ was published in November 2020.  This report sets out what is known about critical barriers to girls’ participation in STEM education and STEM learning, while also highlighting effective interventions to increase participation of girls in STEM. Following on from this report a set of recommendations have been developed and will be published in the coming weeks.

Finally, my Department supports a number of actions in national inclusion strategies, including the National Women and Girls Strategy as led by the Department of Children, Equality Disability, Integration and Youth.

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