Cork caucus hears calls for gender quotas to be extended to local government elections

Speaking at the event in Cork City Hall, Lord Mayor of Cork Deirdre Forde said 'under-representation of women at all levels of governance and decision-making weakens our democracy'. Picture: Jim Coughlan

Gender quotas should be extended from national elections to the 2024 local government elections to ensure Ireland is in line with other European countries, new research has recommended.

It also found that some female elected members believe local government to be “a boys’ club”, while others spoke of being the target of misogynistic slurs at public council meetings.

Others said they suffered significant abuse and threats while canvassing on doorsteps and through social media, often linked to family and gender circumstances, with the report showing female councillors receiving more ‘personalised’ slurs than male politicians.

The research was presented at the Pathways to Participation — Attracting and Sustaining Women as Leaders in Communities, Politics and Business conference, organised on behalf of Cork City Council’s Women’s Caucus in collaboration with Women for Election, in Cork's City Hall.

The authors of Women’s Voices in the Council Chamber report, Dr Aodh Quinlivan, Dr Fiona Buckley, Olajumoke Olumwaferanmi Igun, and John Ger O’Riordan, also found that Ireland ranks 98th in the world for women’s representation in national parliaments, behind countries like China and Iraq.

They found the representation of women at local authority level across the country has risen from 12% in 1991 to 24% in 2019, with women’s membership of the 31 local authorities now standing at 24%.

The authors also found that Cork City Council ranks 17th out of 31 local authorities for female representation and despite women making up one of five councillors, all six of the council’s strategic policy committees chairs are men, which means there is no woman on the council’s powerful corporate policy group — the local authority’s ‘Cabinet’.

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The authors said their analysis of the data suggests from the last six cycles of local elections in Ireland, there is no electoral bias against women — the problem is that not enough women are appearing on the election ballot papers.

And if a woman has served in local government, they are more likely to win a national seat than a man, they said.

The report authors recommended seven actions that could encourage more female participation in politics, including that maternity leave and paternity leave be extended to councillors, and that of the three councillors nominated by each local authority to the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) at least one should be a woman.

They also called for a specific mentoring programme for newly elected women councillors and community-based education around the role of local government and the councillors.

Lord Mayor of Cork Councillor Deirdre Forde said she is just the sixth female Lord Mayor of Cork since Jane Dowdall was first elected over 63 years ago.

“The under-representation of women at all levels of governance and decision-making weakens our democracy,” she said. 

“Our council chamber should reflect our people; their interests, their values, and their desires for their city.”

Chairwoman of the council’s Women’s Caucus, Councillor Mary Rose Desmond, said Irish men are making decisions for Irish women as insufficient numbers of women are present at the decision-making table.

“We have too many brilliant women in this country for this anachronism to continue,” she said.