No women allowed! - Not as long ago in Kilkenny as you think!

‘You do not meet our membership criteria.’
‘We won’t serve you a pint in this pub. You can sit in the snug and someone can buy you a glass.’
‘Here’s your PPS number.. It’ll be easy to remember, It’s your husband’s with a W on the end.’

Take a second before you read on and guess what year any of the above conversations with women could (and did) take place?

Ready? 2000. No, that is not a typo. Until the passing of the Equal Status Act in 2000 it was not illegal to refuse to serve a woman in a pub because of her sex.

A local woman recently  recounted to me how around the same time she was denied membership of one local organisation while a friend of hers denied membership of a separate organisation here in Kilkenny, despite many letters asking to join  - both friendly, hardworking, professional and accomplished women willing to get stuck into the community work both organisations were, and still are, involved in. (Although both organisations are now not only much more diverse but continue to do very worthwhile work in our community).

Up until 2000 when some women got married they had to use the same PPS number as their husbands, just with a W on the end. This W number was issued by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners to identify spouses in a jointly assessed relationship, but has been phased out since 1999.

There had been milestones in the years before that, like when Ireland joined the EEC in 1973 and the Irish civil service had to drop the ‘marriage ban.’ Imagine telling a woman now ‘congratulations on your wedding, now you can no longer work here because you have a husband to keep you.’

We’ve come a long way, as a society, in ensuring all people are treated more equally, but don’t for a minute think there is not, as a previous Taoiseach said of the country, ‘a lot done,  more to do.’

This week, in 2025, a report called The State of the Nation’s Women and Girls has been published by Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman.

This report looks at facts and figures in the areas of health, education, employment, poverty and other demographics. According to Minister Roderick O’Gorman it shows progress over the last 10 years.

When we look at how relatively recently equality legislation had to be brought in to protect equal treatment of genders, it should come as no surprise that there is a current strategy called ‘The National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020: Creating a Better Society for All,’ which the minister said has played a key role in progressing the lives of women and girls in many of the areas covered in this report.

“However, there are some areas of the lives of women and girls that require continued efforts from the government and this department. The new strategy for women and girls, currently under development by this department will provide a roadmap towards continued positive change in these areas.”

Remember, 2025.

So what are these areas of life where women and girls still fall behind men and boys?

In health the number of females reporting they are in good or very good health has fallen since 2011. From 88.1% to 82.8%. This despite female life expectancy increasing  from 83.0 years to 84.2 years over the same timeframe.

Female mental health performs consistently lower than that of males and has worsened since 2016, and girls aged 10-17 (47.0%) remained less likely than boys (62.6%) to meet the national guidelines on physical activity for children.

Women are still paid less than men with the same level of education - females with an upper secondary level of education earn 7.7% less than males with the same education level and 6.6% less than males when it comes to third level education.

It’s not all gloom - There has been a substantial increase in the percentage of women attaining third level education, rising from below 37.6% in 2011 to 50.4% in 2023. 

The gender pay gap in Ireland has fallen from 12.7% in 2011 to 9.3% in 2022.

Also, the percentage of females who are financially vulnerable has fallen since 2011. In 2011, 15.6% of females were at risk of poverty, this has dropped by over 5 percentage points to 10.4% in 2023. But that’s still one in ten women!

A key statistic in the report is the increase of ‘girls who run the world,’ or, as the report calls them ‘females in national administrations.’

Female representation in the Irish parliament has improved from 19.0% in 2011 to 27.8% in 2023, though remains below the EU27 average of 33.2%. The number of females in senior positions in national administrations has also increased from 22.1% in 2011 to 41.8% in 2023.

This is where we hope the doubling of women in these positions means a lot more ‘hands up’ to the capable women and girls coming after them, and not a ‘pulling up of the ladder’ behind them. After all, as many groups from the United Nations to the Irish Women for Election body say: “Governments which reflect the diversity of the society they represent make better decisions.” That’s a philosophy we can apply across our whole society.