Women from ethnic minorities reveal abuse experienced on election trail
Report noted that many EU migrant women acknowledged the 'benefits that whiteness provided them' in contrast to the experience of both Traveller women and women of colour.
Women from ethnic minority backgrounds have revealed the racist abuse and sexual harassment they have experienced while out campaigning and canvassing.
One interviewee in a new report to be published on Thursday said: “Some people they just open the door, it’s enough to see your face, and shut again.”
Another described the impact of racist and sexist incidents while canvassing: “Actually puts the fear of God in me in a way, that I wasn’t able to cope and then it gave me a thing of wanting to always have eyes in the back of my head because while canvassing you don’t know who is following behind you.”
The report, produced by researchers at Maynooth University on behalf of the National Traveller Women’s Forum and The African and Migrant Women’s Network, recommends that female candidate quotas for elections here should also incorporate a quota for ethnic minority women.
This will help to address the issue of underrepresentation in elected office, the researchers suggest.
Dr Pauline Cullen, who co-prepared the study, said campaigning and canvassing was a “mixed experienced” for the women they interviewed.
She said:
“Experiences of abuse ranged significantly from racism and sexism on and offline, to sustained ‘in person’ racist and sexist harassment, abuse and intimidation.”
Dr Cullen said the women from different minorities who took part in the research shared experiences of exclusion from electoral politics, despite them being engaged in essential political work within their own communities.
The report also noted that many EU migrant women acknowledged the “benefits that whiteness provided them” in contrast to the experience of both Traveller women and women of colour.
The report added: “Yet while all women participants acknowledged they had experienced racism and sexism, some downplayed these experiences and their effects. There is an evident apprehension about raising issues of sexism and racism because of the political costs of doing so. There is also a lack of clarity about where to report such issues.”
It recommends a number of measures to address the issues faced by women from minority backgrounds seeking election.
This includes legislation for the local election gender quota of 40% women candidates to incorporate a quota for ethnic minority women as well as reserved seats for Travellers at local level.
It also calls for a State funding scheme for political parties to diversify their membership and candidate lists, and the implementation of hate crime/speech legislation along with provision for anti-racism and anti-sexism media codes of practice.
