Women Are Most Likely To Experience Discrimination Than Men, Report Says

In 2010, 12% of adults in Ireland said that they were discriminated against in the preceding two years, according to a new report published today (Friday 14 December) by the ESRI and the Equality Authority.

The highest rates of reported discrimination were in recruitment (6%) and in the workplace (5%). In services, discrimination was highest for accessing housing (3%) and using financial services such as banks and insurance services (2.5%). The lowest rates were for education (just over 1%), 'other public services' (just over 1%) and transport services (0.4%).

People of Black ethnicity are almost four times more likely to report experience of discrimination than White Irish people and over five times more likely than White Irish to report serious discrimination, even after controlling for a range of other factors. They report higher rates of discrimination both in work and in many service settings.

The results are based on new analysis of the CSO's Quarterly National Household Survey: Equality Module 2010, which asked adults in Ireland about their experience of discrimination in a range of different situations. These data were collected after the labour market entered deep recession and in the report they are compared with data from an earlier Equality Module conducted in 2004 during the economic boom. Since 2004 there has been a fall in service-related discrimination, from around 9% to 7%, though there has been stability in work-related discrimination, at around 7-8%.

Women are more likely to experience discrimination than men, particularly in the workplace. In services as a whole there is no difference between men and women, although women are more likely to experience discrimination in health and education and men in financial services.

Welcoming the report, Renee Dempsey, CEO of the Equality Authority, said: "Discrimination remains an enormous challenge to Irish society. We need to strengthen our commitment to equality in Ireland as a key element of our strategy for economic recovery. It remains the case that those most at risk of discrimination are least likely to know their rights. This research shows that knowing your rights makes a real difference and addressing this issue will be a particular challenge to the new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission "

(CD)