Women in society - Equity is still a dream to be realised

THAT fewer than one-in-four – 12 out of 44 – of the Irish candidates standing for election to the European Parliament is a woman is a very poor reflection on how women have advanced in this society.

This paltry representation echoes a 2004 poll that placed Ireland 63rd on a league table that considered the number of women elected to political office in various countries. It might have been natural to expect that figure to evolve towards a more equitable balance, but last month we fell nearly 30 places to 88th in the latest worldwide poll. Amongst European parliaments, the Dáil has one of the lowest percentages of women members at about 13%. The EU average is 24% with the highest, Sweden, at 47%.

In Ireland, the country of the sophisticated and advanced electorate, we elect fewer women than Bolivia, Sudan, Cambodia or Kazakhstan. Irish women are amongst least successful – or the most effectively excluded – Europeans at getting elected to political office or even being nominated to stand for office.

This is unlikely to change quickly either as, at the present rate of change, nearly four centuries will pass before women make up 50% of Dáil membership.

Of course, about half the electorate are women, so it seems some think that policy or tribe is at least as important as gender when deciding who to support. However, far too few women get even as far as standing for office, much less getting elected.

In many European countries – France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Slovenia – it is mandatory for political parties to nominate a percentage of women as candidates. In Belgium female representation went from 12% to 35%, once legislation made a quota of women candidates obligatory. Last March Labour launched proposals to introduce such legislation in Ireland.

Outside of politics the changing economic situation is having an impact on women too. Funding for schemes designed to promote women’s interests is in jeopardy. The National Women’s Strategy (NWS) is struggling and the Equality for Women Measure may be mothballed because of a funding crisis too. This is a small country with a limited pool of talent and we cannot afford to exclude anyone who has something to contribute from business, politics or any other field of activity purely because of their gender.

Though the political classes will deny it vehemently, our political system has yet to prove that it is capable of solving the great challenges facing the country. It is not hard to believe that our political system would be much stronger if it was more open and welcoming, less in thrall to a few dynasties and so utterly self-serving.

The impact of nepotism in some parties, where surnames seem as least as important as ability, has discouraged many able and dynamic people – men and women – from participation. We are in the throes of a great challenge because we encouraged a political system grown insular, unaccountable, self-serving, detached, conservative and concentrated in the hands of too few.

If encouraging more women to participate would change this country for the better, we would be fools not to do so. Any barriers that prevent anyone, no matter their gender, from making a positive contribution must be removed.