Champagne was sipped and chocolates savoured in the office of the Galway Advertiser on Tuesday. Courtesy of owner Ronnie O’Gorman, it was a simple but thoughtful recognition of the female employers to celebrate International Women’s Day.
It seems incredible that not many years ago women were more likely restricted to a Christmas sherry at home, unable to buy a drink in a public house in Ireland, or work in the public service after they were married. Times do change for the better as we celebrate the amazing achievements of women who were once passed from fathers’ hands to husbands’.
Throughout history, women have had to overcome struggles that men simply have not had to face, and even today how many women out there have been passed over for promotion knowing they had superior qualification, and experience? On paper, companies and educational institutes might adhere to gender equality, but the practice can still be somewhat different. In Ireland today only one in five entrepreneurs is a woman - the EU average is one in three.
Good news for Galway is in the political arena with three women taking seats in Galway West and East, after an election that produced a 40 per cent increase in women elected from 2011. Maire Geoghegan Quinn led the way here in Galway, becoming the first woman cabinet minister since 1922 and the first woman in the history of the Irish state- appropriate that she was appointed chair of an independent panel to examine gender equality among Irish higher education staff.
If barriers still exist, so does prejudice/and or ignorance. It is disheartening that even this week a media personality believed tennis star Maria Sharapova, if banned, could simply have a couple of children - this from the same person who believed that unless women were capable of giving birth, they were not really women. And it is unthinkable that the current housing crisis, even in Galway, is putting women and children at risk - Cope Galway says 288 individual women with 405 children could not be accommodated in 2015.
Women’s Independence Day is not just about celebrating those at the top of their careers, but recognising the ability of all women to be respected and achieve their goals. We can celebrate women’s achievements, we honour women in science, sport, education, civil rights, politics and more, who continue to advance gender equality.
And importantly we understand that dreams and aspirations are not gender specific. Like this year’s Google Doodle, women must still dare to dream. Whether they take a direct route or a scenic one, take a few hits along the way, one day women will.
Linley MacKenzie
