There is still a 15 per cent pay gap between women and men in Europe and just 30 per cent of entrepreneurs are female. It’s also been found that women often face greater difficulties than men in accessing finance and training.

However, equality is becoming a reality for women in Ireland. Female participation in the labour force began to grow significantly following our accession to the EEC in 1973.

The increase was largely thanks to the abolition of the marriage bar for women in public service jobs and stronger equality legislation from the EU has continued to improve access to the labour market.

Back in 1961 the population of Ireland was 2.8 million and women accounted for just 26.4 per cent of the workforce. By the time we joined the European Community in 1973, there were 287,800 Irish women in employment out of a total labour force of 1,132,000, representing 25.4 per cent of the total workforce.

But in the years following accession the figures began to grow rapidly. In 1987 the employment rate for women of working age was 35 per cent and by following decade it was up to 42 per cent. The EU average the same year, 1997, was 51.1 per cent.

The EU target rate for female employment is 60 per cent by 2010, and Ireland already exceeds that figure. In 2008, there were 921,600 women in employment in Ireland (compared to 1,186,900 men) with an employment rate of 60.5 per cent.

Year	% employment rate for women
1961	26.4%
1973	34%
1987	35%
1997	42%
2008	60.5%

Throughout the EU the percentages of women working part-time is far greater than men. On average 76.5 per cent of part-time workers in Europe are women. The main reason for this is that women play a predominant role in the care of children, the elderly and disabled persons.

The average share of part-time women workers in total employment in the EU in 2007 was 31.2 per cent. The corresponding figure for men was just 7.8 per cent.

In Ireland, the situation is broadly similar with women accounting for about 33 per cent of part-time workers in total employment and men making up less than 10 per cent.

Recourse to temporary work is also slightly more common among women with average figures for the EU at 15.1 per cent of women compared with approximately 14 per cent for men.

In Ireland, slightly more women than men are employed on temporary contracts although the numbers of people on temporary contracts are generally much lower than the EU average at less than 5 per cent overall.

In 2006, 3.9 per cent of women in Ireland were employed on temporary contracts compared to 2.9 per cent of men.

Women with young children are also less likely to work than those without. In the EU as a whole the average employment rate for women aged 20-49 with children (under 12) is 62.4 per cent whereas for those without children it is 76 per cent.

However, the unequal sharing of care responsibilities and the lack of childcare facilities is reflected in the rates for men with young children which stands at over 90 per cent.

Women still face difficulties when it comes to career advancement. The EU average for women in managerial postions is only 33 per cent and the figure is even lower in Ireland at just 30 per cent.

Despite the fact that female students outnumber males in business, administration and law, the proportion of women directors in top quoted companies is only three per cent across the EU, and only one in ten company board members is a women. There are no female governors of any national central banks in the EU.

Throughout Europe sectoral divisions also continue. Male workers predominate in sectors like construction, utility services, transport, communication, manufacturing and agriculture.

Women are dominant in health and education where they represent around 70 per cent of workers. They also outnumber men in the wholesale and retail trade and other services.

In Ireland the education and health sectors employ the highest proportion of women, with an 80 per cent share of the total at work in health, 85 per cent in primary education and nearly two-thirds in second level education (62 per cent).

In 2007 the Irish education and health sectors employed 30.8 per cent of all women who were aged 15 or over and in employment compared to 27.8 per cent of women in the EU. The construction sector employed the lowest proportion of women, with men representing 95 per cent of employees.

In contrast, in 2008, 21.1 per cent of Irish women in employment were employed in clerical and secretarial occupations, compared with 5.1 per cent of men.

Professional occupations were the most gender balanced in Ireland with women representing 49.8 per cent of those employed. Public administration and defence, wholesale and retail trades, financial services and general services sectors had the most gender equal workforces in 2007.

Craft and related occupations were the least gender balanced with men representing 95.7 per cent of workers in these occupation

In 2007, 64.7 per cent of Irish civil servants in general service grades were women. At clerical grades, 77.5 per cent of staff were women.

In contrast, just under a quarter of those at secretary general level were female.

The percentage of women employed in each economic sector in Ireland is similar to the pattern in the EU, with the exception of agriculture, forestry and fishing where 10.5 per cent of the employees in Ireland are women compared with 37.8 per cent across the EU.

    The risk of poverty rate is also greater for women and particularly among women over the age of 65 (21 per cent of women over 65 are at risk of poverty compared to 16 per cent of men), partly as a result of shorter and less well-paid careers.

For Ireland, the average at risk of poverty rate after social transfers and pensions was 19 per cent for women and 17 per cent for men.

Based on figures from 2006, the corresponding average figures for the EU as a whole are 17 per cent for men and 15 per cent for women.