You should be appointed to a board or hired for a job or elected to office because you are the best person for the role/job or the people have chosen to elect you, not simply because you are a woman.

Appoint your female friends or male friends to these boards. Just don’t insult our intelligence by pretending that it’ll matter or that you care either way.

There is more to equality than gender!!
What about the disabled, travellers, skin colour, immigrants or left handed people.
Best person for the job should get it end of.

I was at a debate organised by Kanchi (www.kanchi.org) which was chaired by George Hook last April. Kathleen Lynch was one of the speakers and she was of the particular view that every workplace should have quotas for women, race, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, etc. This is not a position I particularly agree with, as the potential talent pool is narrowed and the “best” person for the job may be passed over because s/he does not fulfil the desired quota. It also means that those who do enter the workplace or politics as the direct result of a quota go in there on a less than equal footing, and they may be perceived as the “best of a bad bunch” by their employers and colleagues.
Also, given that primary school teaching is a predominantly female profession, I wonder how Lynch and other advocates of gender quotas would feel if every male Leaving Cert student who applied to the CAO for a place at any teacher training college was guaranteed that place, regardless of whether or not he got the points. Female students would still have to get the minimum points required for the course, and may end up losing out to male students as a result. By Lynch’s logic, I could argue that even if a male student does not have the minimum points required, he is more “meritorious” of receiving a place, purely because he is a man and no other factors should be taken into account.
I am very much for diversity in the workforce and in all aspects of political life, whether it is along the lines of gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation, disability etc, but I do not believe that quotas are the correct way of doing this. Quotas only serve to reinforce the misguided notion that “equality is only equality if it swings in one’s favour”, often to the detriment of others who may be more qualified and experienced.

Shame on her husband for letting her talk like that.

Minister Lynch, should read the constitution first. Under which, Personal Rights, Article 40, 1 states “All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law.” So to impose gender equality legislation could result in a referendum.

Any chance of addressing the inequality of educational outcomes between women and men that Kathleen Lynch seems to present as a good thing in this article?

Are they going to fix the education system so? If females are now getting better results in exams it would suggest a gender bias in the system. As it is getting larger each year it says the system favours one gender over another.

Great news, Now us women can run Ireland properly like Margaret Thacter in the UK.

This is great news. Now where’s my dinner?

On a serious note, i do think there is a need for more women in politics, i noted the junior health minister has been replaced with a ( Government friendly chap) it takes both male and female working together to create an understanding of the Countries needs ..

Why not give Mrs. Brown a shot at Running Country at least we would get Laugh if Nothing Else???

Im all for it. I’ll try anything to get this country back on its feet once it does not involve religious organisations,banks corrupt politicians & people not prepared to take serious decisions. Now ladies please stop talking about it like us men & get on with it.

The European Commission’s proposal is for a quota of 40% female *non-executive* directors on the boards of listed companies. Even in those companies, there will be no quota for the people who actually do the work.

It’s good that Europe has nothing more important to discuss, don’t you think?