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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
April 2015 71
T
HE “glass ceiling” is alive and well
in the business sector in Ireland.
A survey carried out by the Irish
Times (2014) of the Top 1,000 Busi-
nesses in Ireland found that only 25%
of the c-suite jobs (jobs with the word
“chief” in it) were held by women. 11%
of the CEOs and 16% of the CFO posi-
tions were held by women. The average
of 25% is skewed as a result of “femi-
nised” senior management team roles.
55% of the women were Heads of Mar-
keting and 67% of women were Heads
of Human Resources.
A survey of Irish International NGOs
in 2012 by Niall O’Keefe demonstrated
that they employed 4,246 staff nation-
ally and internationally, and that 59%
of these staff were women. 51% of man-
agement-level positions and 30% of CEO
positions were held by women. There is a
broad range of Irish International NGOs
working to address underdevelopment
in Southern countries.
Typically their core values are to
support and promote equality and
empowerment of women, as drivers of
development. Based on my personal
experience working in Ireland and
overseas I decided to research this dis-
crepancy between the values held at
Field Office and Head Office and the glass
ceiling that is indicated by O’Keefe’s
research.
A number of themes to explain this
discrepancy emerged from question-
naires completed by women at all levels
of employment within the sector, and
from a small number of interviews with
women staff in middle- to senior-man-
agement jobs.
Gender equality is an organisational
objective so it is not surprising that 64%
of respondents were familiar with gender
policies in their organisation. A further
69% maintain that gender equality is
promoted at Head Office level. Yet, when
asked if “Women with many skills and
qualifications fail to be recognised for
promotions” 64% of respondents said
yes. A number of respondents’ comments
suggested that; “Organisational policies
reflect gender equality, but practices do
not”; “Gender equality is promoted in
our work but it is not something that is
followed through” and “Gender equality
is promoted but it is all lip-service” .
Family-friendly policies tend to be in
place in head offices with flexible work-
ing hours and home working available.
However, the costs of implementing
them limited organisations’ capacity to
offer a broad range of options.
One respondent commented that
“structural constraints exist that hinder
women from achieving what they should
in a professional context. These struc-
tural constraints mean things like access
to affordable childcare and flexible work-
ing environments”.
Organisational culture was considered
a limiting factor, often being classed
as “masculine”, “male heavy”, and in
some instances both “paternalistic and
maternalisitic”. There was prevalence
towards the “think manager, think
male” paradigm in the sector. 64% of
respondents agreed it would take dec-
ades for women to reach equality with
men in high-level-management posi-
tions. Respondents’ comments backed
this up: “Men in senior roles have a bias
against appointing women to very senior
roles – partly because they want people
like themselves, and partly because they
are afraid of dealing with issues such as
maternity leave and childcare”; “Men do
not see me and other women as having
the same potential for advancement as
our male colleagues”; “It is a hierarchy at
work and [because of] managerial chau-
vinism, only few women are actually able
to gain promotion in certain circles”.
Both sets of data indicated that
progression for women within these
organisations is harder than for men,
with a considerable influence in relation
to having children.
An interviewee suggested that time
off for maternity and childcare “inevi-
tably has a negative impact on a woman’s
career progression”. Respondents com-
mented that [men managers] “assume
that you will at some stage reproduce
and so are not worth investing in” and
“Basically as a strongly career orien-
tated woman, taking time out to have
my children really set me back. It was a
choice, family or career”.
50% of the respondents who are
mothers feel that maternity leave nega-
tively affected their careers. Comments
included; “I need to re-establish myself
w it h t he org anisat ion h av ing b een away ”;
“I will have become ‘rusty’”; “I have lost
progress on the career trajectory I was
on”; and “Affected my chances of promo-
tion on return”. Yet 52% of respondents
maintained that motherhood is more
important to most women than career
development.
Stark choices had to be made “I worry
about having to make a choice between
having children and progressing to a
good position in my job, and thus have
already made a decision in my mid 20s
not to have children”. •
International-development NGOs discriminate against women even though their
remit is to promote women. By Deirdre Murray
NGO glass ceiling
59% of staff
were women
but only 30%
of CEOs were
women
“
INTERNATIONAL Discrimination
