Gender Equality

On April 16th 2019 Mr. David Stanton, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality with special responsibility for Equality, Immigration and Integration launched a Call for Proposals for Gender Equality projects under the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020.

The Gender Equality activity contains two separate strands: A) Women Returning to the Workforce; and B) Women’s Entrepreneurship.

Strand A – Women Returning to the Workforce: 

In line with the Government’s ‘Action Plan for Jobs 2016’, the Department of Social Protection’s strategy ‘Pathways to Work 2016-2020’ has identified a group of people “who, although not classified as unemployed jobseekers, have the potential and the desire to play a more active role in the labour force” as a key target for job activation measures. Women in this category are the target participants for this Activity.

Strand B – Women’s Entrepreneurship: 

The Government issued a National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in 2014, which recognises that ‘entrepreneurship is a key element in the health and wellbeing of any thriving economy and will be central to Ireland’s continuing recovery. The Global entrepreneurship Monitor 2014 Report for Ireland, reported that Irish men are 2.1 times more likely than Irish women to be an Early Stage Entrepreneur, and 2.4 times more likely than Irish women to be New Business Owners. The EU- 28 average ratio of 1.8:1 of men to women Early Stage Entrepreneurs suggests that there is still a pool of women entrepreneurs to be supported by this activity. 

Details of the Call for Proposals and the application process are available here. 

Summary of 2019 ESF Successful Projects from Gender Equality Call for Proposals.