New National Strategy for Women and Girls

Today ICA and the National Women’s Council welcomed the publication of the new National Strategy for Women and Girls which highlights the Government’s commitment to gender equality as a core principle of public policy and law in Ireland. 

Commenting on the new Strategy, Doireann Crosson, Head of Policy at the National Women’s Council said, 

“The new National Strategy for Women and Girls sets out a comprehensive roadmap to advance women’s rights and equality over the next five years. It commits the Government to eradicate women’s discrimination and promote women’s full participation across all Departments and all levels. We welcome the recognition in the Strategy of NWC and our almost 200 member organisations which were centrally involved in the consultation process on this strategy. We look forward to continue working with the Department in driving forward the development of the forthcoming Action Plan. We aim to support the Department to align this strategy with other existing National Equality Strategies, ensuring the intersectional experiences of disabled women, LGBTQ+ communities, Traveller and Roma women, migrant women, and others are addressed in a robust first Action Plan.”  

Here are some of the broad commitments NWC welcomed from the Strategy: 

Data collection and reporting 
The Strategy commits to standardised and comparable data collection and reporting. Being able to disaggregate equality data collected by Government Departments and State Agencies will mean we can see the full picture of women’s access and where the gaps are.

Women’s Health and Mental Health  
NWC welcomed the commitment in relation to women’s health and women’s mental health, in particular the commitment to address unmet need of in the provision of gender sensitive and trauma informed mental health services to women across the life course.  

Family Leave and Childcare   
NWC also positively noted the commitment to further enhance the scope of family leaves and increase pay rates but warned that the commitments in relation to early years care and education will not address the systemic issues of our broken childcare system. Without the necessary system change to a public model, the Government will not be able to address the structural issues in our childcare system as it is overly reliant on private, often for profit providers and has led to high costs, lack of availability of places and low pay and precarious working conditions for the mostly female early years educators. 

Women’s Leadership  
NWC also noted the absence of a clear commitment to introduce a Gender Quota for local elections, despite a 40% commitment already in place for general elections. Without women’s equal representation in politics our democracy remains incomplete. 

Climate Change  
While we welcomed reference to the health impacts of climate change on women and girls, NWC would have liked to see stronger commitments throughout the Strategy in relation to addressing the unequal impact of the climate crisis on women.  

To read the NWC’s full response to the new National Strategy for Women and Girls please click here.