On 4th September, our second annual Irish Society for Women in Economics conference at the Central Bank of Ireland on ‘Diversity, Economics, and Society’.

ISWE Chair Emma Howard and Deputy Governor Mary-Elizabeth McMunn delivered opening remarks, followed by Orla Doyle who presented results and feedback from our pilot school outreach programme ‘Discovering Economics’. Throughout the day we had over 100 attendees, 14 paper presentations and 10 poster presentations on topics including gender bias, workplace disability diversity, defining sexual violence, social inequalities, and charitable giving in the LGBTQ+ community.

Prof. Almudena Sevilla, CBE delivered an engaging and insightful keynote on how to address the motherhood penalty- the immediate and persistent gender gap in pay that emerges when women become mothers. She presented evidence from the UK showing that simply measuring the number of hours parents spend looking after their children underestimates parental investment. As children grow older, parents continue to be ‘on call’ long after constant supervision is needed; helping with homework, driving kids to/from activities, offering emotional support, and minding them when they are sick. The gender gap in these ‘on call’ hours fulling explains the long lasting fall in mothers’ paid working hours in the UK. The policy implications for reducing the gender pay gap clearly support investment in afterschool services and flexible working hours.

Almudena also chaired a fantastic panel discussion on ‘How feminist economics can contribute to policy and research on diversity and society in Ireland’. Míde Griffin explained how feminist economics differs from mainstream economics and the importance of acknowledging that all economic research makes assumptions, often grounded in ideology. Nina Teasdale spoke about her research on the gaps between flexible working policies and practices, and her chapter in the Economy of Ireland book on Care, Gender, and Policy. Lisa Hughes spoke about the challenges of working to shape policy on gender equality and equality more broadly, and the work required to translate strategy documents into action. Nata Duvvury spoke about her research on domestic violence, the huge economic cost of violence against women, and how her work informed the national policy on domestic violence leave.

A huge thank you to the Central Bank of Ireland for hosting us and for their ongoing support of our initiatives. Thanks also to Tara McIndoe Calder, Dilan Aydın Yakut, and Boryana M. who made sure everything ran smoothly on the day, the ISWE conference committee, the presenters, session chairs, and attendees for a really enjoyable conference. We hope to see you all again for our third conference next year!