Speaking after the Global Summit of Women Political Leaders:
I was delighted to be invited to address this Global Summit where I took the opportunity to speak about the impact on societies and economies of corruption and unaccountability as well as the importance of education, gender equality and tackling violence against women.”
The purpose of the summit was to exchange best practices around the globe of leadership, legislation and political agenda-setting that creates results. Obviously, Iceland is of particular interest to me because of their approach to white collar crime and the prosecution of those responsible for the banking crisis. World Bank Economist, August Lopez-Caros, spoke about the damage caused to societies and growth by not having a critical mass of women in the decision making process and how corruption is largely a male problem. It is no coincidence that four of the seven women on the board of Icelandic Bank are women. Twenty nine bankers have been jailed in Iceland for the part they played in the 2008 banking crisis. Irish citizens are still awaiting accountability for the Irish Banking Crisis which led to 27 billion euro private banking debt being forced upon the most vulnerable of Irish Society.”
There was wide spread concern about the under representation of women in STEM Subjects, Science/Physics, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Countries, communities and economies cannot prosper without equal participation of women and men. STEM occupations are growing twice as fast as other jobs and workers are earning 26% more in these occupations. China recently launched its first unmanned factory. Ireland, as is the case in many other countries, is lagging behind when it comes to STEM subjects in the education system. We need major investment into these subjects and in particular we need positive action to encourage young women to take up and continue these subjects. If we look at the nobel prizewinners it gives us the stark reality; chemistry 165 men/5 females, medicine 196 males/11 females, physics 197 males/2 females, mathematics 55 males/1 female 165 men. We must stop training young people in areas of unemployment. We have huge opportunities in the West of Ireland that can be maximised by targeted investment in education and telecommunications and a bit of vision and a portion of common sense.”
Photo: Rose Conway-Walsh Speaking at World Political Leaders Summit 2017
