Annual Report 2005

making a real difference National Women’s Council of Ireland Annual Report 2006 Photos: National Women’s Council of Ireland. Contents Chairperson’s Foreword 2 Director’s Introduction 4 About the NWCI 6 NWCI Strategic Plan (2002-2005) 7 Affective Equality 11 Economic Equality 15 Political Equality 21 Social & Cultural Equality 25 An Empowering Process 27 Building the Base 28 Communications & Media Work 30 Information Centre 34 Financial Report 35 List of Affiliates 2005 38 List of Executive Board, Staff & Auditors 40 NWCI Board & Staff Representation 42 2005 was a busy year Chairperson’s Foreword for the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) Women experience inequalities every day in Ireland, particularly in the areas of employment, caring roles, health, decision-making and with campaigns and events participation structures and in the perpetration of violence against organised to highlight the fact women. Women living in rural areas also suffer from the lack of transport to access work, education and community services. Despite many years of that, in this 3rd millennium, action by the NWCI, Government and other NGOs these inequalities women are still facing multiple persist and prevent women from achieving their full potential as citizens of this modern world we live in. forms of discrimination based on their gender. In Ireland, on average women earn 17% less than men every week. On a typical salary of €30,000 per annum this would be €5,100 less per year or almost €100 per week. Women are crowded into a narrow range of occupations and along with the costs of childcare and other caring services this limits their potential for advancement. Currently Ireland is ranked 51 out of 56 countries in terms of equality of economic opportunity for women. (NESF Report 33, Jan 2006). The 2005 Annual In Ireland, on average Report of the Equality Authority states that the second largest caseload women earn 17% less it deals with is on the Gender Ground (taken under the Employment than men every week. Equality Acts). Discrimination in the workplace with regard to accessing { entitlements to Maternity Leave continues to be a major issue of concern for women. There are many barriers for women to reconciling work and family life, particularly the cost and availability of childcare, disability care and elder care provision; all still primarily undertaken by women. During 2005, the NWCI has worked energetically to raise awareness of these issues and lobby Government for change. The Council’s work on: ‘A Women’s Model for Social Welfare Reform’ offered substantial proposals to address them in a more equitable way than is currently the practice. The NWCI’s ‘Brown Envelope Campaign’ focused attention on the inequalities experienced by women through the Social Welfare System. In September 2005, the NWCI published the report: ‘An Accessible Childcare Model’ a model of publicly funded Early Childhood Care and Education in Ireland. The reports offer proposals for alternative, research- based solutions to the inequalities experienced by women in caring roles. 2 Violence against women is perpetrated in many forms. The Strategy is a plan that will have a 10-year time span and will deal with policies and Domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault are commonplace in strategies for addressing the barriers women face in participating fully in society. our society. There are many challenges in addressing the issue of violence against women. The NWCI works closely During 2005, the NWCI initiated a Strategic Review process, to examine the outcomes of with our members who are active in this area to support our Strategic Plan (2002-2005) and develop proposals for a way forward. In consulting with them in their work and raise awareness at a national level, our members, we identified our strengths and will build upon them to write a successor to demanding Government action to address the underlying the Strategic Plan, which will aim to achieve Affective, Social/Cultural, Economic and Political causes. The trafficking of women for sexual exploitation is a Equality for women, keeping women’s issues on the agenda, locally, nationally and serious and rapidly growing worldwide phenomenon. This internationally. We look forward to your participation in this process and in working with trade in human beings for monetary gain is an extremely you in the coming year. lucrative business earning several billion euro a year at the expense of innocent lives. Trafficking in human beings Finally I would like to acknowledge the tremendous work of the Director and Staff of the constitutes one of the most severe violations of human rights NWCI and thank them for their commitment and hard work throughout the year. My thanks in the world today. Women's human rights are violated when also to the current board of NWCI, for their dedication and contribution to the Council over they are bought and sold, raped, falsely imprisoned and the past year, which has been greatly appreciated. tortured. It is estimated that more than 120,000 women and girls are trafficked into western European countries every year to work in the sex industry. Thérèse Murphy Chairperson In order to influence decision-making forums, we must increase women’s representation in decision-making structures and address the structural barriers to women’s participation. The NWCI works actively to influence Government to dismantle these barriers and to implement policies that encourage and support women to become involved. It is clear that positive action is needed to Currently Ireland is ranked 51 out of 56 encourage proportional representation in decision-making countries in terms of equality of economic structures, both local and national. Without positive action opportunity for women. women will continue to be seriously under-represented and { as such, our voices will not be heard. There are many other challenges facing the NWCI. Funding for the women’s sector is always a matter of deep concern and serious attention needs to be paid to this issue to enable women to participate in their local communities and contribute in a meaningful way. The National Women’s Strategy (NWS) is due to be completed in June 2006 and the NWCI has made several contributions to this process. 3 Only a society that is Director’s Introduction committed to justice, a society Achieving women’s equality in Ireland remains unfinished business; hence that values human dignity, the necessity for the National Women’s Council of Ireland’s commitment to achieving affective, political, economic, social and cultural outcomes solidarity, autonomy, and equal that would make a real difference to all women’s lives in our society. This human rights for all individuals, Annual Report sets out our achievements over the past year, and the full range of our work in the service of women’s equality. can ever achieve equality between women and men. It remains critically important for the NWCI to work towards a feminist vision of women’s equality. Feminism is the movement to resist and challenge a belief system about women as other and lesser than men; for us that means envisioning a just and equitable modern Ireland, where women participate with equal effectiveness as citizens and men share the responsibilities of care more equally with women. The Strategic Plan that we have been working towards over the past four years comes towards completion at the end of 2005. Strategic plans often lose their vibrancy coming to the end of their allotted time. But during the Strategic Review carried out in 2005, it was clear that the NWCI’s Strategic Plan offered strong evidence of new growth and reaffirmed a long history of maintaining its prerogative to speak for the women of Ireland. Looking to the future this suggests the need for consolidation and growth, rather than a change in direction for the organisation. The NWCI is a dynamic organisation that over the past year has developed its internal processes and relationships between Executive Board and Staff, working together for example on an Employment Policy which we believe to be a model of excellence that we can implement ourselves and which we can share with our members. L-R: Noirin Hayes, CSER, Denise Freeland, London Development Agency and Joanna McMinn, NWCI Director at The Childcare Report Launch. 4 Over the past year we have continued to support the development of open, participative and constructive relationships with our members, through members meetings and seminars, our ‘Brown Envelope Campaign’, Strategic Review focus groups, and working groups on different issues. In all of these arenas our purpose is to encourage dialogue, a critical exchange of ideas and inclusion of different cultural perspectives, in order to develop our policy positions so that we can advocate change based on evidence, drawing both from research and from women’s experiences. 2005 has been a rewarding year, and as Director I should like to express my sincere appreciation of their support and encouragement to my colleagues, the Executive Board and members; collectively, we have a stronger contribution to making positive change for all women in Ireland a reality. Joanna McMinn Director Achieving women’s equality in Ireland remains unfinished {business. L-R: Orla O’Connor, Head of Policy, Thérèse Murphy, Chairperson and Joanna McMinn, Director, begin the Street March. 5 About the NWCI Structures The NWCI is a membership organisation, whose members give their mandate for our work at The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI), Comhairle the Annual General Meeting (AGM) each year. Each Affiliated organisation has one vote at the Náisiunta na mBan in Éirinn, is the national representative AGM, where motions, sanctioned by members, are debated and voted on. organisation for women and women’s groups in Ireland. We are working to make Ireland a better place for women; to The Executive Board of the NWCI is a voluntary management committee, elected by the create a society where women participate equally in all Membership at the AGM.

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