Why Gender Parity Matters: CEO commentary on Gender Parity (International Women's Day 2024)

I have been doing a lot of reading in the run-up to International Women’s Day today, and a lot of musing in particular on gender parity, which I believe is a moral and social imperative. I also believe it is a very practical imperative as striving for gender parity and, therefore, inclusion has a proven positive impact on growth, innovation, and resilience.

Parity is also the precursor for peaceful social cohesion, something at the forefront of all our minds these days. According to UN Women, “The World needs peace and peace needs women”, as it cites women as crucial partners in delivering and sustaining the three pillars of lasting peace: economic recovery, social cohesion, and political legitimacy.

The European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE) defines gender parity as the equal contribution of women and men to every dimension of life, and this includes work – which stirs my curiosity regarding how the profession of psychology fares.

EIGE’s Gender Index, which measures gender parity across the EU, comfortingly points to progress, but simultaneously highlights its fragility. Ireland’s scoring reflects this. Ireland’s arguably laudable 73 out of 100, positions Ireland ninth in the EU, but it is, however, a drop of two places indicating progress stalled. An optimistic outlook might flag that Ireland still ranks just above the EU average, but then as psychologists well know, average does not tell the whole story. I could dissect the full set of findings, but will save this discourse for another day, or another blog.

What is worth flagging in the meantime, and in the context of taking a profession perspective, are Ireland’s results relating to the Work domain, a metric that has seen marginal movement since 2010, largely down to its two starkly contrasting indicators:

1. There is a significant increase in ‘participation’, i.e., in rates of full-time equivalent (FTE) employment and the duration of working life (77.4 in 2013 to 85.4 in 2023).
2. There is virtual stagnation in ‘segregation and quality of work’, that measures the extent to which women and men can benefit from equal access to employment and good working conditions (69.8 in 2013 to 68.4 in 2023).

These figures illustrate how entry to and participation in work can be a metric that disguises and obscures the actual experiences, particularly the pinch points of women’s progress in the workplace. In the Index, segregation is measured through the participation by gender in the sectors of education, human health, and social work activities. The quality of work is measured by flexible working time arrangements and job prospects. Continuity of employment, as it relates to employment contracts, job security, career advancement prospects and development of the workplace, is also measured in the overall Work domain.

Against these stats and this backdrop, a valid question for the PSI to determine is how the Society can, as a professional body with 4,500 members, consider these domain metrics. How can the PSI signpost, cultivate and role model a diverse and inclusive culture that advocates gender parity, and the addressing of any systemic gender inequities within the psychological community?

There is a body of work to do here, starting with surfacing the issue, i.e., actively seeking out and defining where the profession is at, and then hearing and capturing actual experiences. It is an important listening and engagement exercise that is needed to unearth any inequities, both the macro and the microaggressions, as they are experienced in the workplace. Only then can the obstacles to parity and progression be identified and reflected upon. Such an exercise needs barrier breakers, not bystanders. It requires leadership, professional humility, and an unwillingness to pay lip service to the important issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion.

The follow-on from this will be actions that garner and nurture professional participation and inclusion, and that diminish attrition. These actions need to generate impacts that are meaningful, quantifiable, sustainable, and scalable.

Consider the gender gauntlet thrown down.

Blog post by Sheena Horgan Chief Executive Officer The Psychological Society of Ireland

References

• https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2013/IE
• https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2023/IE