Towards a Better Future

Chapter Seven: The School System: Equality, Inclusion and Rights
take-up of STEM subjects for our economy. However, there is also a developing awareness of the
importance of what are called the ‘STEAM’ subjects - i.e. the way in which combining the Arts with
the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics can foster greater creativity and
innovation. The OECD has pointed out that, in Ireland, while 22% of men study Science, only 11%
of women do, with an even smaller proportion of women studying Engineering, Manufacturing and
Construction – 3%, compared to 22% of men (OECD, 2016b). Stereotypical choices have significant
labour market implications for students and for social, cultural and economic development. There
is substantial work to be done in schools of all types in fostering non-stereotypical subject choices
among their pupils.
While female students out-perform boys in most subjects at Leaving Certificate level and
predominate in Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) and other further education programmes (O’Connor,
2007), there is one area of education that is almost entirely male-dominated. This is the
apprenticeship area. Apprenticeships are set to provide an increasingly important pathway for school
leavers. Currently, apprenticeships operate primarily in a number of designated trades, including
engineering, construction, motor, electrical, printing, and furniture, and men have typically
accounted for 99.5% of graduates of such programmes (O’Connor, 2007). Submissions to the Review
of Apprenticeship Training in Ireland (DES, 2014c), established by the Minister in 2013, considered that
an improved gender balance would best be achieved by widening the scope of apprenticeships into
new areas such as business administration, ICT, social care, hospitality, financial services etc. The
widening of scope forms part of the strategic plan of Solas (Solas, 2014). Following the Review, the
Apprenticeship Council was established. It commenced an invitation process for new apprenticeships
in order to identify apprenticeships that could expand into new sectors of the economy, across a range
of qualification levels and mapping out the sectors where new apprenticeships could make a real
difference to both employers and employees (Apprenticeship Council, 2015). This would result in
Ireland moving closer to the model that prevails in Germany, which includes both craft and service
occupations, although there is evidence that there too such occupations are gender-typed (Smyth
and Steinmetz, 2015). Addressing the gender inequality, which characterises this important avenue
to employment, will need to be a strong focus both for government policy and for careers advice
in schools.
Analyses of patterns in European countries, including Ireland, show the apparent advantages enjoyed
at school by high-performing girls are not always ‘cashed out’ into later advantage in higher education
and beyond (EU Commission, 2009). In Ireland, the OECD and the EU, at all levels of educational
attainment and all age-groups women’s earnings range from just 73-79% of those of men (OECD,
2016a, p.126). With regard to educational achievement, it must be borne in mind that gender
intersects other differentiating variables and both boys and girls are often disadvantaged sufficiently
by their family backgrounds to obscure the effects of gender differentiation (Gorard et al., 1999). For
example, working-class girls are often both disadvantaged and not identified as such.
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