Only six women in 137 top board jobs

IRELAND’S top ten companies have just six women out of a total of 137 directors on their boards.

Reacting to the glass ceiling findings by RTÉ, Mary Kelly, chair, National Women's Council of Ireland, said "it was absolutely no surprise to the NWC the findings were as bad as they have been portrayed."

The figures, gathered by RTÉ from the websites of the ten companies, follow a report yesterday in the UK showing women are still massively underrepresented in FTSE 100 companies.

Gillian Bowler, director of Irish Life and Permanent, described the figures as "stark" and undermined the view of 20 years ago that women were about to take their rightful place in Irish business. Regretfully, that has not happened, she said.

Irish banks, arguably the most conservative wing of Irish business, have come well out of the survey.

They account for five of the six women in directorships in the top 10 Irish firms. Bank of Ireland has two female directors Caroline Marland and Mary Redmond, while Carol Moffet is on the board of AIB and Patricia Jamal in on the board of AIB and Patricia Jamal in on the board on of Anglo Irish Bank.

Standing apart also from the male chauvinist empire of Irish boardrooms is Independent News & Media.

It is the only other of the top ten companies by market capitalisation to have a female director.

CRH, Ryanair, Kerry, Galen and Elan have no women among their 64 board members. The FTSE female index produced by Cranfield School of Management showed that of the 1172 people on the boards of FTSE 100 firms, only 101 directors were women. Mary Kelly said the lack of women in boardrooms was symptomatic of the lack of gender balance in most areas of Irish life and is a far bigger issue here in comparison with other European states.

This is true in Dáil Eireann where just 13% of TDs are female.

That contrasts sharply with other European countries where gender balance quotas have been insisted on in terms of selection of candidates.

Legislation has been passed in many countries geared to ensuring gender balance. In Sweden, today the government is a 50/50 split between men and women.

Finland, Norway and France are also well on the way to gender balance, but it took changes in legislation to get that movement going. To get critical mass in the decision making process be it in companies or politics

it is reckoned that 40% of those taking decisions need to be women, said Ms Kelly.

Without their input the issue of proper health, social welfare, childcare, and other key society issues are not being adequately addressed. That, she stated, has implications for men as well as women and with more women working outside the home the childcare deficit is huge.

Single parents have no chance because of the total failure to address the above issues, said Ms Kelly.