sharon donnery : citizenship, participation and diversity remarks by ms sharon donnery, deputy governor of the central bank of ireland, at the launch of the €15 silver proof commemorative coin, marking 100 years since irish women won the right to vote, dublin, 27 november 2018. * * * ceann comhairle, ministers, teachtai dala, senators, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here at leinster house today to launch this commemorative coin. the coin was designed by michael guilfoyle and marks 100 years since irish women won the right to vote. the central bank acts as an agent for the minister for finance and public expenditure and reform in issuing all irish coin – both the circulating coins we use every day and commemorative ones. our commemorative coins aim to recognise figures and mark moments of national importance. recognising that 100 years have passed since women first gained the right to vote in ireland most certainly fits these criteria. and this coin is the latest in a series of coins marking centenary events from the lockout commemorative coin launched in 2013 to the 2016 coin marking the centenary of the proclamation. in a few short months, we will mark the centenary of another significant event with a coin to commemorate 100 years since the first dail. today, i would like to discuss three themes that applied to the suffrage movement and which still resonate today : citizenship, participation and diversity. * * * but first, if i may, a word about coins themselves. when we use our coins on a daily basis – to buy a cup of coffee, to pay for parking, to contribute to a charitable collection – we rarely dwell on their wider significance. throughout history, in addition to their functional role, coins - and currency more broadly - have had important political, social and cultural dimensions. politically, for example, currency and coin can act as a “ vector for the construction of a … polity and political community ”. 1 currency and coin can thus play a role for citizenship. take the role of the euro in building european identity and citizenship, for example. 2 this is true at national level, too. for many of us as children, we first came to recognise the emblem of the state, the harp, because it was on every coin we used growing up. we could touch and feel the emblem – our emblem – in our hands. the same is true of our own children today who still see the harp on irish euro coins. while we share a common currency with the other

the establishment of the irish free state, universal adult suffrage was granted. which means we can rightly celebrate key moments in history such as women earning the right to vote. but we can never grow complacent that the work is done. * * * participation which brings me to the issue of participation. earning the vote, which hanna sheehy skeffington called the “ keystone of citizenship ”, has indeed led to “ fields that are broader and full of interest ”. 5 whilst there are many dimensions to the achievements of women, i am sure you will appreciate that as an economist by training and a central banker by profession, i ’ m fond of using statistics to tell a story. for economists a key metric is labour force participation. just 30 years ago, for example, the labour force participation rate for women in ireland was 34. 4 per cent. this meant that two thirds of the female working age population were not in any way engaged in the labour market. 6 the comparative figure for men was 70. 8 per cent. 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches this was a staggering difference. in 2017, the female participation rate stood at 55. 7 per cent, above the eu ( 15 ) average of 52. 5 per cent. the male participation rate was still above the eu average, at 68. 6 per cent, and more importantly, the gap between men and women had narrowed to 16. 1 percentage points. still a large gap i know, but the trend has certainly moved in the right direction. these numbers may seem abstract, but they have a significant impact on the economy. economic research has highlighted the importance of the rise in female participation through the late 1990s and early 2000s in ireland. 7 it is important that social policies support this. recent research from the san francisco federal reserve for example, found that altering parental leave policies in the us to encourage female participation to rise to levels observed in neighbouring canada could add as many as 5 million prime - age workers to its labour force. 8 * * * diversity of course, women participating in the labour force is one matter, equality of opportunity is another matter again. in the ‘ world i work in ’ we have a long way to go. in 2017, the central bank first published data on the level of gender diversity at senior levels of financial services firms we regulate, and we have committed to publishing these data on an annual basis. 9 the results were glaring, but unfortunately unsurprising, in that