Women in public life - Policy must be matched with action

Gender quotas and the positive discrimination needed to realise them are fraught subjects.

In an ideal world — in this context a strong, proactive meritocracy — they would be an anachronism. Individuals would be appointed or offered to an electorate because of their personal qualities rather than being representatives of a certain under-represented demographic.

It is generally accepted though that some sort of quota system, some sort of bias, is appropriate to correct historical imbalances and move more quickly towards an inclusive, more representative ideal. Government recognised this and before the 2011 election, promised to appoint more women to state boards. Like nearly all of the reform-based election promises, it attracted considerable support, especially as the consequences of decades of the self-satisfied, purring conservatism bordering on stasis were all too apparent.

Within a year of being elected, Environment Minister Phil Hogan brought forward legislation to ensure that women will make up 30% of party candidates in the next general election. That proportion will rise to 40% in five years. The most forceful kind of encouragement has been applied through this law as parties that do not reach these quotas will lose state funding.

This will be a step in the right direction, as women are unacceptably underrepresented in our parliament. Just 25 women were elected to the Dáil in the last general election. This means, unsurprisingly even in Ireland, that the other 141 of the 166 deputies are men. Pathetic and almost antediluvian as this level of representation is — just 15% of seats — it is the highest ever representation achieved by women in the history of this State.

The proportion of women elected is smaller than the proportion of women who ran for election, so the electorate has played its part in perpetuating this situation. Of the 566 candidates who stood, 480 were men, just 86 were women — just a shade over 20%. There are myriad reasons for this, each parsed endlessly but most of them, like the Dáil’s working hours or the structure of our political parties, are impediments to women.

It is unfortunate then that the Government has not used the opportunities afforded by vacancies on state boards to address the gender imbalance. Only three of 14 government departments have met the 40% representation target. Women are particularly under-represented in finance — 25% — and economic affairs — 22% — but dominant in children and youth affairs — 63%. This is an evolving situation but progress is, as Taoiseach Enda Kenny acknowledged in the Dáil recently, far too slow and every opportunity must be taken to accelerate it.

That two recent appointees to the Supreme Court are women is in itself laudable, but those two appointments means that just three of 11 Supreme Court judges are women. Even though people must satisfy criteria other than, and more important than, gender to sit on the court, this representation confirms that we must do much, much more to ensure that half of the population is represented as it should be.

This is yet another case of a lot done but a lot, lot more to do and one that, like other reform projects, demands a greater priority and urgency in Government thinking and policy.