Don’t segregate gender in politics

I AM in strong agreement with Labour TD Joanna Tuffy in regards to her decision to boycott the female-only TD and senators meeting that took place on November 9.

As a female student currently studying electoral politics in the National University of Maynooth, I believe this form of segregation will generate a divide between female and male politicians. I am aware that the women of Ireland have fought rigorously over centuries to achieve the right to vote, having been rejected by the patriarchal society of the past, thus is it not a contradiction to repeat and practice the negative gender divide between male and female?

If the issue was to be reversed, and a male-only meeting was to be orchestrated, would this not create mayhem in a society which has only recently achieved gender equality? !We are in a “modern” political system which has not altered greatly in relation to the number of female TDs and senators elected to the Dáil. In the 2007 general election, women represented just 17% of the elected candidates, while today only 25 women sit in the Dáil in comparison with 141 male seats, reducing the female percentage to 15.2%.