At the start of the week all 58 of the Garda's top posts were held by men. Kathy Sheridan reports on the woman who broke through
It was almost a case of move along now, nothing to see here. Maybe it's a sign of the times that women gardaí were taking as routine Wednesday's announcement that Catherine Clancy had been made an assistant commissioner, becoming the first woman to hold the post. "I heard about it last night," said a young garda in a western station, "and it was just, um, normal."
Another even took a dim view of the media focus on Clancy's historic achievement, lamenting that it took some of the limelight from Noel Smith, this week's other promotion to AC. "He deserves every bit as much attention as Catherine Clancy. It's a fantastic achievement to reach that rank, whether you're male or female."
The way these women see it, females in the Garda Síochána have nothing to prove - and even if they had there's nobody to stop them doing it. Sure, Phyllis Nolan caused a bit of a stir when she became the first female superintendent, but that's well in the past.
It's easy to forget that only six years ago the 56 occupants of the force's top posts, from chief superintendent up, were men. The most senior women were two superintendents: Nolan - the trailblazer - and Clancy. They shared their rank with 160 men.
Still, Clancy was adamant at the time that she had encountered virtually no prejudice and that equality was "not an issue" in the Garda. The clincher, in her view, was that of the four women who applied to be an inspector (one rank below superintendent) when she did, three made the grade. "That's a 75 per cent success rate," she said.
In 1998, as the first woman to become a Garda chief superintendent, she shared the billing with the first non-Catholic, as Bill Fennell was described, to do so.
So the trends seem headed in the right direction. Six years ago, when Clancy was interviewed, the force was just 10 per cent female. A Garda spokesman says that in the past few years female recruitment has been steady at a healthy 30 per cent of the total.
Even healthier when you consider the context. Although the first banghardaí, as they were quaintly known, were inducted 44 years ago, in 1959, there were still only 78 of them 20 years later. The marriage bar, which swept away a generation of women from the public service and elsewhere, was also at work in the Garda. It's notable that Clancy joined up only two years after it was abolished.
So is the Garda Síochána now nirvana for women? Not exactly. For one thing, that 30 per cent recruitment rate is taking rather a long time to kick in. The 10 per cent figure of six years ago for the force as a whole has managed to struggle up to 15.
Progress on the promotions front has been equally tedious. Although a nostalgic smile might be evoked by the notion that six years ago all 56 top posts were occupied by men, it shouldn't. They still were on Tuesday night; but no longer. The top three slots remain male. Since Wednesday there has been one female among 10 assistant commissioners, and none among 45 chief superintendents. In the following ranks are four women out of 173 superintendents (2 per cent), 12 out of 294 inspectors (4 per cent) and 125 out of 1,962 sergeants (6 per cent).
Even more revealing is the percentage of women on the promotion ladder compared with men. By our estimate, 20 per cent of male members of the force hold posts above garda rank, compared with less than 8 per cent of the women.
And although being made a detective is theoretically a "lateral" move as distinct from promotion, in practice it undoubtedly counts above clearing bus lanes when set before a promotions panel.
Clancy, for one, was made a detective only three years after induction, travelling the country for eight years as the only woman with the murder squad before moving to the central detective unit in 1988.
"I learned everything that you can possibly learn about investigating there," she said. "How to organise a search team, how to run an office, how to write a report, talk to prisoners, how to deal with victims."
So how many women are blazing the same promotion trail? Just 9 per cent of female gardaí are detectives, compared with 16 per cent of males.
There are no easy answers. There is a consensus among ambitious young women gardaí that getting out of Dublin city into smaller districts yields more opportunities to get off the beat and show what you can do. Clancy, says one young garda, "took the chances she was given and went bald-headed for what she wanted. That's all".
Another even reckons that being in a minority may well be a bonus now, because "they definitely want to be seen to be promoting minorities. I truly believe that I have as good a chance of getting on as anyone, and I don't get any sense of an attitude or disrespect from the men around me. They become part of your family. It's like having a dozen big brothers.
"I know there was a different attitude in times gone by, but I think that's all gone. They've no choice. There's too many women coming in".
Another says: "The older guys in the job nearly have daughters the same age as the women they're working with - it's not something new any more."
Yet in a lower-rank promotion race in one station, about six times as many men as women applied to move up the ladder.
Clancy herself said in 1997 that "women haven't been too good at putting ourselves forward for interview to the higher ranks".
But could they possibly be that bad? The force describes itself as an equal-opportunities employer. It participated in the New Opportunities for Women programme in 1998 and launched a project to promote work-life balance in 2001.
Gardaí of both sexes say, anecdotally, that all sections of the force now include women, including the physically demanding emergency-response unit.
There is one other consideration, something Clancy shares with a remarkable number of highly successful women: she is unmarried.
Asked if this could have made it easier for her to spend extra time at the job and climb the ranks, she replied: "I suppose I have had more time . . . but, no, I would have been just as committed to the job whether married or not."
Who knows?
Commissioner: male
Deputy commissioners: both male
Assistant commissioners: nine
men, one woman (10 per cent)
Chief superintendents: 45 men,
no women
Superintendents: 169 men, four women (2 per cent)
Inspectors: 282 men, 12 women
(4 per cent)
Sergeants: 1,837 men, 125 women (6 per cent)