Numbers of women working in Ireland up 80% since 2000

Women now make up three quarters of education and social work employees, says CSO

More than six in ten women in employment had a third-level degree compared with under 53% of men.

The number of women in employment has risen by over 80% since the turn of the century and now accounts for almost 42% of Ireland's total workforce. 

New figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Friday found that there were now 1.33m women in employment in Ireland, up from just 729,900 at the end of 2000.

CSO figures also show that the number of women who reported their principal economic status as "engaged in home duties" fell by 62% in the last 15 years, dropping from 520,000 in 2010 to 198,800 in 2025.

Women now represent over three quarters of employees in the human health and social work sector, and just under three quarters of the education sector.

In addition, the CSO found that more than six in ten women in employment had a third-level degree compared with under 53% of men.

Median weekly earnings among female employees rose by over 39% between 2014 (€469.85) and 2024 (€654.07). 

This compares with an increase of 36.5% in median weekly earnings among male employees over the same period, from €587.52 in 2014 to €802.14 in 2024.

Meanwhile, the proportion of women among the top 1% of earners increased by five percentage points from 22.6% in 2019 to 27.6% in 2024, while the proportion of women in employments with earnings in the top 10% rose from 27.9% to 30.6% over the same period.

In 2022, the Gender Pay Gap (GPG), which was measured as the average difference between men and women hourly earnings, was 9.6%, with mean hourly earnings for men at €27.73 and €25.06 for women.

In terms of nationality groups that contributed at least 1% to the total earnings across three consecutive years, employments held by Indian females had the highest median weekly earnings in 2024 at €919.27, followed by employments held by Irish (€677.02), and UK nationals (€646.01).

“This release aims to provide insights on women in the labour market, in terms of both employment and earnings, by combining and analysing statistics provided in existing releases such as the Labour Force Survey (LFS), Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS), and Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) which are produced by the Labour Market & Earnings Division of the CSO," said statistician Colin Hanley.

"The changing dynamic of women in the workforce is evident through several key trends. Since 2010, the number of women reporting their Principal Economic Status as “engaged in home duties” has fallen by 61.8%, from 520,500 to 198,800 in 2025. 

"Meanwhile, the number of married women in employment has risen by 24.7% over the five years from the end of 2020 to the end of 2025."