Gender balance in Irish politics ranked among world’s worst
Last month, that ranking had slipped to an abysmal 88th position, below countries such as Bolivia, Sudan, Cambodia and Kazakhstan, making Irish women among the most under-represented in political life across the EU. The rankings were compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union which has UN observer status.
At the current rate of movement – or indeed non-movement – it will take 370 years for the percentage of women in the Dáil to reach 50%.
Paula Clancy, founding director of TASC, a think tank for social change, expressed serious concern that instead of progress simply halting – which had been the case for many years – Ireland has actually slipped down the world rankings.
“It is fairly clear we need action, and I would be in favour of at least a temporary quota system,” she said.
“There has been sufficient evidence that they have been successful in other countries.
“The Government has to take this seriously, but I don’t see any evidence of it, certainly not in terms of legislative change,” she said.
The core idea behind quota systems is to recruit women into political positions and to ensure they are not only a few tokens in political life.
They are, however, controversial – naysayers claim they are undemocratic. But without them, women simply do not get into political life in sufficient numbers.
Yvonne Galligan, director of the centre for the advancement of women in politics at Queen’s University Belfast and a research expert on women’s contribution to politics in Britain and Ireland, maintains there is something “seriously wrong” with Irish society because of the dearth of female representation in political life.
If this continues, she said, the whole of society suffers and cannot grow and develop to its maximum potential. Ms Galligan believes, however, that at the grassroots, talk of change is afoot.
“Like never before, there is a discussion about this. People on the doorsteps are saying it. Business woman are saying we have to have more women in political life,” she says.
She maintains that the issue could be forced into the spotlight even more due to the banking crisis and economic situation.
“There is a perception that there was a male-orientated cosy cartel. People think maybe this might not have happened to the same extent if there were more diverse voices in power, including more women.”
There are many of the view that if women really did want to be in politics they would be there, putting themselves forward. But according to Galligan, it is not that easy, and this perception does not reflect the cultural over generations.
“It is not simply something that can be turned on like a tap. If you have been told to go away for the past 10 years, it takes time. Part of the problem is that, culturally, there was never any encouragement for women. It is very difficult for them to emerge from grass roots.”
Women, says Galligan, need to be sent very positive messages within their own party that their contribution is needed.
“The legislative route is one way to go, and quotas are used incredibly widely, because without them women simply are not put forward as candidates.
“Men do resist this change – it is taking power and opportunity away from them – but this is where political leadership must come in.”
In March of this year, the Labour Party launched its gender parity bill.
“Women are under-represented and we have to do something meaningful about it,” says women and equality officer Kirsi Hanifin.
“We propose that unless all political parties put forward a certain amount of women candidates, they should lose some of their state funding.”
According to Ms Hanifin, France, Belgium (Belgium went from 12% to 35% female representation due to positive intervention enforcing parity among candidates), Spain, Portugal and Slovenia, all have legislation which obliges political parties to put forward a percentage of women candidates, similar to what Labour proposes.
“We need a critical mass of 30%-40% for women to make an impact,” she says. “Men make our laws and represent us. Women’s needs are not met unless women are part of the decision-making process. We know the diversity of our needs – women are the experts of their lives and need to be able to voice and act on those needs.”
Rachel Doyle of the National Women’s Council believes we need legislation. “This problem has never really been seriously discussed and needs clear debate,” she says.
“Of course women should be elected on their own merit, but they need to be put forward to stand in the first instance. This is not happening.”
According to Ms Doyle, domestic responsibilities are seen as the greatest obstacle to a life in politics. Other barriers are money and culture.
Ms Doyle warns that in times of recession, there is a roll back on equality issues. And indeed, one only has to look at the slashing of funding for the Equality Authority to see evidence of this. But, she says, this is a time when equality is becoming more and more important to people at the grassroots.
“At a time like this, women want their voices heard so that issues which are important to them are addressed.
“It is clear that political priorities would be different if there were women at the top. Policies would be more caring and perhaps we would see a focus on women who are vulnerable to poverty, protection against violence, childcare and women’s economic independence.”
The fear is if we continue with such extremely low levels of women – a glaring democratic deficit – these concerns will not be addressed, and indeed only continue to get worse.
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