Gender inequality still very much exists in the Irish workplace and studies show that
NOW I’m no expert but there are certain things you do not do at an interview.
Like hug the applicant. Or ask them out for a drink. Or casually enquire if they are married.
It’s Basic Interviewing 101. Everybody knows the interviewing etiquette, right?
So I was bowled over to read recently that hapless Junior Minister John Halligan had asked a female candidate if she was married and had children.
While interviewing for a private secretary role in 2016, Halligan asked: “I shouldn’t be asking you this, but . . . are you a married woman? Do you have children? How old are your children?”
The candidate — who didn’t get the job — was awarded €7,500 by the Workplace Relations Commission after it was found she had been discriminated against by the Waterford Independent TD’s comments.
Halligan later admitted he regretted the comments before pointing out that he only asked as he runs a “a family-friendly environment”.
Which is all very well, but I bet it wouldn’t have even occurred to him to ask a male candidate the same questions.
Despite Halligan’s protestations, the WRC quite rightly ruled the questions “indirectly associated her with the task of primary homemaker and therefore not as available”.
The fact is, gender inequality still very much exists in the Irish workplace. And study after international study has highlighted that both men and women have unconscious gender biases.
So while we believe men make competent leaders and reward them for it, we routinely consider women not quite as capable as their male colleagues and don’t promote accordingly.
The Halligan story struck a particular chord with me as I have had to play Dodge The Gender Bias Game in the past while trying to get work.
Long before HR became the norm, I was grilled in one interview over whether or not I liked pints down the pub on a Friday night — the question implying I could only get the job if I was prepared to be one of the lads.
My heart sank but as I really needed the work, I said that ‘yes of course I liked pints. Who didn’t like pints?’ I mustn’t have been too convincing, however, as I didn’t get the job.
In other interviews around the same time, I used to remove my engagement ring beforehand in case the interviewers mentally wrote me off as a baby-making timebomb.
I wanted to win or lose the job on merit, not on whether or not the interviewer thought my biological clock was ticking too loudly for comfort.
But why should we care if there are more women in the workplace? Because studies prove the companies earn more if the gender balance is even, or when women outnumber men.
Meanwhile in countries where men and women are closer to gender equality, murder rates are lower in society at large. Surely, that’s a persuasive argument in itself?
So what can we do to level the playing field? Give men access to paid paternity leave, for a start. Encourage more parent-friendly initiatives in the workplace. Lead by example at home with the next generation.
I've a gesture for you Bob
And finally, lobby your local TD for better parental leave policies. John Halligan take note.
I’m not a fan of Bob Geldof and his grumpy old geezer schtick.
This week, the cantankerous Boomtown Rat got up the noses of Dubliners everywhere when he made a big song and dance about handing back his Freedom of the City.
Geldof made the gesture in the hope that controversial Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be stripped of her Dublin honour for crimes committed against her people. Which is fair enough, I suppose.
But as Lord Mayor of Dublin Micheal Mac Donncha quite rightly pointed out, Geldof still clings on to his knighthood despite Britain’s historic record of imperialist atrocities.
Boomtown Rat? Boomtown prat, more like...
Playing a Paddy Abroad
HATE to be Paddy Cosgrave right now. Not only did the Web Summit organiser get in trouble with the Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa this week, he also got a tongue-lashing from the President Marcelo Rebelo da Sousa.
The bumbling techie was forced to issue a grovelling apology after holding an “offensive” dinner at the National Pantheon mausoleum in Lisbon where several of the country’s national heroes are entombed.
Following widespread backlash in Portugal, Paddy played the Irish ‘begorrah begosh’ card to get out of trouble. He wrote on Twitter: “Dear Portugal, I apologise. I’m Irish. Culturally we have a very different approach to death. We celebrate it.” Hmm, not buying it.
Meanwhile, Portuguese PM Costa has vowed to go so far as to change the legislation that allowed for the dinner to go ahead “so that similar situations do not occur again, violating the history, the collective memory and national symbols”. Yikes.
You could say that Paddy has been left with egg on his interface over the whole debacle.
Adverts are gone to our Jeds
WITH only 36 sleeps until Christmas (and not a child in the house washed), ’tis the season of massive Christmas advert budgets.
House furniture retailer John Lewis is said to have splashed €8million on its Christmas ad to flog a few old sofas.
Directed by Oscar- winner Michel Gondry, the tear-jerker features a sweet kid and a friendly monster Moz who lives under his bed.
Meanwhile, Peacocks fashion retailer has gone one better — by enlisting Jedward to pimp its festive wares. In a scene worthy of a horror movie, a bunch of X-Factor rejects turn up at the twins’ door before breaking into some hellish mash-up of festive hits.
Can you imagine that lot showing up on your doorstep on the 25th? Worst. Christmas. Ever.
Very Sensible Plans, Si
BREAKING news . . . Irish politician Simon Harris talks some sense!
This week, the boyish Health Minister revealed fees of €55 or €60 to see a GP are too expensive.
Like most people, I avoid seeing my doctor for that very reason.
Throw in a pricey prescription for antibiotics on top of your visit and you’re looking at the guts of 100 quid for a five-minute consultation.
Meanwhile, Harris wouldn’t be drawn on his plans for GPs but hinted that people may be allocated a certain number of free visits each year. Now that would be just what the doctor ordered.
Woz courts basketball bloke
LOOKS like tennis ace Caroline Wozniacki has had the last laugh after her ill-fated engagement to golf star Rory McIllroy a few years ago.
The Danish babe, 27, is featured in the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, celebrating her new engagement in a skimpy yellow bikini.
Caroline, who was unceremoniously dumped over the phone by McIllroy in 2014, also took some time out to post a shot of her hunky new fiance, basketball star fiancé David Lee, right.
Game, set and match to Ms Wozniaki. Well played.
It dozen make sense, Jim
I WAS horrified to read boasts by the repulsive Jim Davidson that he once bedded 12 women in one session.
The ill-humoured telly star, 63, told ITV’s Piers Morgan’s Life Stories he romped with the women in a London hotel in the mid-Eighties.
My first thought was who the hell would sleep with Davidson? As it turns out, Jim admitted: “They were paid for.”
It suddenly all makes sense...
