Remarks by President McAleese at the 21st Anniversary Lunch of Network Dublin
Remarks by President McAleese at the 21st Anniversary Lunch of Network Dublin, Hosted by Network Ireland at the Four Seasons
Tá lúcháir mhór orm bheith i bhur measc inniu ag an ócáid speisialta seo agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl díbh as an gcuireadh agus an bhfáilte a thug sibh dom.
Good afternoon everybody,
I am very glad to be here with you today to mark a very special anniversary in the history of the Network Dublin. My thanks to your president, Áine Stack, for inviting me to share this occasion with you and my thanks also to you all for that warm and generous welcome.
Twenty-one used to mark arrival into adulthood - symbolised by receiving the key of the door. It’s not a bad symbol for this celebration too for, from small steps in 1983, this Network has grown into an important force in the representation of women at the highest levels of decision-making in Ireland. It has opened closed doors, made possible things that were previously impossible, brought women’s genius right into the heart of Irish business and is surely entitled to take a special delight in the success of its mission to promote, support and develop the position of women in business.
Modern Ireland has a sophisticated framework of legislation which underpins equality across the gender divide. We have been part of a public discourse on equality that has seen structural and attitudinal obstacles give way to fresh perspectives and opportunities and Network Ireland has made it its business to help women to grasp these new opportunities. Ireland has benefited enormously from the surge of creative energy generated by women in recent years as their talents began to make a mark in spheres previously virtually closed to them. Our country is at last beginning to feel the power that comes from flying on two wings instead of one.
We know that we are really only at the beginning of this new chapter, that the full potential of our society has yet to reveal itself but we know too that for those of us who have lived and worked through these years of heady transition the old obstacle course has not been replaced by a seamless highway. We still have much to contend with. The glass ceiling is still a reality, the work/home balance is far from resolved though eased by maternity and paternity leave and by work-sharing initiatives, but the truth is the further the individual’s hierarchical ascent in the business world, the more insistent and unforgiving are the demands of the market place.
Your Network is ideally placed to be a forum for airing these dilemmas and problems, for shaping solutions and lobbying for the kind of changes which make it possible to have a satisfying career and a happy home life. These things are an investment in the health of our country as much as in individuals and it must make good business sense to draw from the best and widest talent base and to have our commercial imagination driven by men and women who are not themselves driven to distraction by overwhelming competing commitments which drain energy and erode confidence.
The Network’s activities are not merely a question of the more direct supports such as training and good counsel, it is also a question of leading by example. The positive effect of witnessing other successful business women and professionals cannot be underestimated – it is essential if we are to break down any perceptual barriers which may remain about women in leadership roles in business and the professions.
Thirty-five years ago when I entered a law school dominated by men the advice from the first textbook we were asked to read told us that the law was not a suitable career for women except in so far as it offered the opportunity to meet potential husbands. No self-respecting Law School would dare have such a book on its syllabus today - it has well and truly been consigned to social anthropology and now it is women who dominate law schools and medical schools, but they are still unacceptably underrepresented in the world of politics and commerce.
If we were to draw comparison with the US, we should have another 56,000 women entrepreneurs, yet in Ireland, women account for only 15% of all entrepreneurs – the lowest in the EU and significantly below the US and Canada, where they currently own over one-third of all businesses. And although there are encouraging signs in younger women’s participation in the work place, the recent survey conducted by the Irish International Women’s Forum has found that women account for only one in twenty of top company directors in Ireland. In politics, only 13% of TD’s are women, and in the civil service only 9% of Secretaries-General and 12% of Assistant Secretaries are female. We are a way yet from flying on two balanced wings. But at least we have a spectacular lift off to look forward to - thanks to the determination of this Network among others to change those statistics.
It is particularly heartening to see the State’s enterprise development agencies taking this issue seriously. Enterprise Ireland is actively engaged in promoting “Women in Business” and I was really impressed by the pilot ‘Captains of Enterprise’ programme initiated by Limerick City Enterprise Board last year to encourage female school students towards entrepreneurship as a career. Talking to many of those young women I was struck by the way the programme had opened up such an option to them for the first time, giving them the confidence and self-belief to contemplate becoming the kind of skilled risk takers business demands.
But you know better than most just what a lonely journey such a career can be unless you have a vibrant support network like this with its bank of essential resources from mentoring, to information, from training to shared solutions. The old Irish proverb says - giorraionn beirt bothar - two shortens the journey and Network Ireland shortens the journey to success for women in business and for business in Ireland. If you had not made that start, taken that first small step twenty-one years ago - how much of todays’s good news story would be missing? This is an important twenty-first birthday, a coming of age, a time to look back on great years of growth and change and to look forward to the full blossoming of lives lived far away from the paralysing waste of the voices that used to chant - you can’t because you are a woman. They are silent now thanks to you. These are the days of can-do women and in twenty-one years time there will be one amazing party as you survey all they have achieved with your help.
Comhghairdeas libh arís ‘s go n-éirí go geal libh. Go raibh maith agaibh.