Government ‘reluctant’ to promote equality for women

PRESSURE must be put on the Government to develop an ambitious strategy to tackle “persistent gender inequality” in Ireland, it was claimed yesterday.

Joanna McMinn, director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, told a seminar on women’s humans rights the Government was reluctant to promote equality for women.

Ms McMinn said the Government’s National Women’s Strategy was “very conservative” and showed a resistance to a rights-based approach. Women’s groups want an ambitious strategy on gender equality with a timescale for implementation and specific ways of measuring progress, she said.