Ireland near bottom of EU for proportion of women in politics

Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of women in parliament in the EU and is in the bottom half of the world rankings.

The slight increase following the general election saw women take 25 of the 166 seats, up from 22 in the previous Dáil.

At just over 15%, Ireland is 23rd of the 27 EU countries, and worldwide ranks 53 out of 95 countries — coming just above Burkina Faso and Albania.

This compares to Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands with over 40%, and Rwanda and Andorra with over 50%.

Ireland also ranks in the bottom half for female cabinet ministers, at 14%

The figures were released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a worldwide body that promotes women’s political participation. It says the world average is about 19%.

The group hailed the rise in the number of women TDs elected last year, even though it made very little difference to the overall representation.

It praised the proposed legislation that would see political parties lose half of their election funding from the taxpayer if fewer than 30% of their candidates were women in the next election, and 40% after that.

About 18% of candidates in the last election were women: 86 of the 480 that ran for election. This was close to the proportion of 15% elected.

The IPU blames a lack of political will among politicians to improve the number of women in parliaments. It argues that political parties have to have equal numbers of men and women candidates and should also allocate more winnable seats to women than in the past.

“Data tends to confirm that women would have the same success rate in elections but face many more obstacles than men,” it says, calling for clear rules on candidate selection and proper funding of women’s campaigns.

In Europe, the IPU said the financial crisis dramatically affected the number of women in national parliaments, with women losing ground in Cyprus, Estonia, Portugal, and Spain.

Many women lost their seats because they were typically in marginal seats, the group said.

The Arab Spring has so far proved mixed for women. Many Arab states come bottom of the league, with Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar having no or very few women in parliament.

Egypt was particularly badly affected with the percentage of women falling from close to 13% to just 2%, or 10 of the 508 seats.

On the positive side, Tunisia is adopting a law to have 50/50 quota of candidates on the lists and Morocco is to introduce a quota for women.

“The Arab Spring has yet to deliver for women in politics. Women were at the forefront of the uprisings in the Middle East. They need to be at the forefront of parliamentary democracy too,” said Abdelwahed Radi, president of IPU.