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PUBLISHED 8 MARCH 2024

Inspiring Inclusion

Today, International Women's Day (IWD) allows time to reflect on the contribution that half the world’s population makes to societies across all cultures around the globe.
This year’s theme is Inspire Inclusion.

The aim of the day

The stated aim of IWD is: “A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.” 

A 2023 Opinion piece in The Irish Times set the historical scene: “International Women’s Day (IWD) was born out of a protest by 15,000 garment workers in New York in 1908, who took to the streets to demand shorter hours, better pay, an end to child labour and voting rights. One hundred and fifteen years later, two of those aims are still a work in progress.”

Reflecting on ourselves

And at Irish Times Training, we have embraced the concept of inclusion in a big way! Our team is 70% women, our faculty is 65% female, as is 80% of our Academic Advisory Group. So, we need to be aware of the inclusion of our male colleagues – the deal cuts both ways.

Participation for prosperity

It probably comes as no surprise that those working in the Education and Health sectors in Ireland are more likely to be female than male. 
However, in terms of the international job and skills market, the European Commission’s Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) report, published in 2023 found that: “Faced with a severe shortage of skills and labour on the job market, and in a context of digital, demographic and ecological transition, increasing the participation of women is necessary if we are to develop an innovative, competitive and prosperous European economy.”

Statistically speaking

According to Mark Twain, there are ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics’, so we’ll just look at some statistics here, as set out in the latest figures (2019) from the Central Statistics Office:

• Women represented 46% of the Labour Force in 2019. Just under half (49.5%) of the labour force aged 15-19 were female, the highest proportion across all age groups.
• More women than men aged 35-64 had third level education in 2018, with 46.6% of women being educated to at least degree level compared with 39.2% of men.
• About 75% of all graduates in both Education and in Health & welfare were female in 2017.
• Just over one in three (33.9%) Irish women at work were either in the Education or the Health sector in 2018.
• More than five in six (85.8%) primary teachers in Ireland were women in 2017 and, at second level, women accounted for 70.3% of teachers that same year.

So, the question of education and skills development outside ‘traditional’ areas of interest is an ongoing one:

• A quarter (25.3%) of all boys took higher level Construction Studies compared to just 3.1% of girls. Only 1.1% of girls studied higher level Engineering compared to 16% of boys.
• Around 80% of all graduates in Information & communication technologies and in Engineering, manufacturing & construction were male.

Just box-ticking?

Some might say that for many organisations International Women’s Day is little more than an annual box-ticking exercise, with brunches and panel discussions being one-off activities.
But inclusion doesn’t take a break for the other 364 days of the year – and we can all play our part in fostering workplaces and spaces in which everyone feels included.

At Irish Times Training, the gender balance of our team will probably not change hugely in the next couple of years, but the impact of truly including those with a wide range of abilities and strengths will ensure that we are working as the most effective organisation that we can be – supporting learners, teams and businesses as they build their people’s skills and future-proofing their organisations.
Lots done, more to do, of course…

#InspireInclusion