Gender and Equal Opportunities in the Northern Ireland Public Service: An Evaluation of Progress

Author(s): Pamela Baird and John Kremer
Document Type: Report
Year: 1997
Publisher: Equal Opportunity Commission for Northern Ireland/Chief Executives Forum
Place of Publication: Belfast
Subject Area(s): Economic Issues, Employment, Gender
Client Group(s) : Employees, Employers, Women

Abbreviations: CEF - Chief Executives Forum, EOC(NI) - Equal Opportunities Commission (Northern Ireland)

Background to the Research

  • In order for equality of opportunity to operate effectively, organisations must move beyond the letter of the law to encompass good management practices and sound economic business economics. It was within the context of this principle that in 1993 the EOC (NI) and the CEF commissioned research to evaluate gender and equality of opportunity across the public sector.
  • The findings and recommendations from the 1993 research were disseminated in 1994. This current report represents the evaluation of progress made within the public sector in relation to equal opportunities since the launch of the original research and it's recommendations.

Research Approach

  • A telephone survey was carried out of 102 contacts in CEF member organisations; 40% of the contacts were located in personnel departments with 21% having specific responsibility for equal opportunities. Fourteen percent were located in either finance or administration and 5% of participants were Chief Executives.

Main Findings

  • Ninety-six (94%) organisations reported having an equal opportunities policy in existence (compared with 90% in 1994). Policies tended to concentrate on gender and religion. The majority of policies (77 out of 80: 96%) included disability.
  • Sixty-five per cent (compared with 66% in 1994) of those designated responsibility for equal opportunities felt that sufficient resources were made available for day-to-day operations within their organisation. Over half also believed sufficient resources were available for new initiatives.
  • Ninety percent of the policies had been drawn up in consultation with trade unions (compared with 62% in 1994) and 26% of contacts reported that trade unions had been consulted with regard to equal opportunities training courses.
  • The findings show that between the 2 survey dates there appears to have been little increase in the provision of childcare for employees in the Public Service, however there appears to have been a dramatic increase in the number of organisations providing job sharing, career breaks, part-time work and flexible working hours.
  • In relation to positive action programmes, 95% of organisations mentioned some form of positive action (similar to the 1994 findings); those that did not tended to be small and staff shortages were viewed as operating against flexible working arrangements.
  • In contrast with the 1994 findings where only 9 organisations detailed opportunities/facilities specifically for women, in the current survey 68 organisations (69%) offered women-only training (e.g. assertiveness/women in management training).

Conclusions

  • Most progress was made in the areas of policies on sexual harassment; the introduction of informal advisory/counselling services; trade union involvement in the development/reviewing of policy; imaginative positive action plans and women-only and senior management courses.
  • Least progress was made in material and human resources for equal opportunities and general awareness training for employees.
  • Variable progress was made in the development of multi-dimensional equal opportunities policies, trade union involvement in training, systematic research to address structural/attitudinal barriers to women and systematic development of positive action programmes.

 

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