Better educated but still lagging in pay and power

Better qualified than their male counterparts, women in Ireland earn less, are grossly under-represented in politics, and barely register in engineering, manufacturing and construction, according to recently published data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The CSO’s Women and Men in Ireland 2011 report shows that more than half of women aged 25 to 35 are third-level qualified, whereas less than 40% of men are so qualified. At school, girls outperform boys in the Leaving Certificate, scoring more As and Bs in honours English, Irish, French, art, music and chemistry, while boys scored better grades in higher maths and physics.

This gender-orientation to subjects was reflected at third-level: three out of four graduates in education, and four out of five in health and welfare, were female, compared with five out of six male graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction.