Gender Gap a Persistent Problem One Year After Stormont Return

Thursday 6 February 2025

By Roseann Kelly MBE, CEO of The WiB Group, as featured in The Irish News.

Stormont must move further and faster if it is to fulfil its aspirations of ‘doing what matters most’ for the people of Northern Ireland.

Stability is one thing, but urgent and focussed action is quite another, as was laid bare in Pivotal’s assessment of the first 12 months since last February’s restoration of the institutions.

While acknowledging the progress that’s been made, such as the £25m pot for childcare and long-overdue strategy to End Violence Against Women and Girls, the evaluation was clear: more must be done in 2025 to create real, long-lasting change.

Putting aside the fact that the Executive’s £25m childcare allocation amounts to just 6% of the estimated £400m it would cost to develop a new and fully-fledged early learning and childcare strategy here locally, there is a problem that has proved persistent: Northern Ireland’s low rates of productivity.

And it’s here where we continue to languish far behind other UK regions. To the point where Queen’s Business School (QBS) last year ranked Northern Ireland in 10th place out of 12 regions, representing a significant drop-off from 2023 when NI had climbed to 7th.

It’s not just a data-driven league table; this widening productivity gap has a considerable knock-on effect on our everyday lives, impacting wages, living standards and the money available to invest in our chronically underfunded public services.

Among the key productivity drivers analysed by QBS was the rate of economic inactivity, with NI among the highest of all UK regions at 28% of the working age population. It is small wonder, then, that increased productivity has been propped up as one of the four pillars within the Department’s plan for economic growth.

But what does that look like in practice? Pivotal’s assessment rightfully calls out the lack of detail coming from the Stormont Executive at present. Treading this path towards a more inclusive and prosperous economy requires plans that are specific and ultimately affordable.

Plans that can be measured and optimised for this rapidly moving business world. Plans that involve everyone at the table, pitching in and collectively contributing for a better tomorrow.

We won’t achieve this until there is greater equality in our workforce and the gender employment gap is adequately resolved. Right now, mothers are 30% less likely to be in full-time employment compared to non-mothers, according to research by the Queen’s Department for Economics.

Together with informal caregiving and outdated gender norms, the Motherhood Penalty is driving the gender employment gap in Northern Ireland and blunting our economy’s competitive edge.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but foresight is crucial. The WiB Group calls on our Executive to unlock the true potential of NI’s talent pool throughout these next 12 months in office. To make demonstrable progress in creating opportunities that are flexible and future-fit, to overcome longstanding gender gaps and thereby ensuring a more inclusive outlook for 2025 and beyond.

Thursday 6 February 2025