Alison O'Connor: Where have all the women gone? All I can see are the men in suits

Some people don't like quotas, but consider this: it will take until 2063 to achieve gender parity, writes Alison O'Connor

Taoiseach Micheál Martin (centre) at Government Buildings in Dublin, speaking during a press conference, with Minister for Climate Action, Communication Networks and Transport Eamon Ryan and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. Picture: Julien Behal/PA Wire

“Is it time” read the text from a friend, “for the men in suits at podiums?” I immediately knew to what it was she referred. After a weekend of intense speculation surrounding what level of the Living with Covid plan we would be subject to, she was wondering when the line up of guys in suits and ties would be holding a media briefing to give us the details of our fate.

That very thing happened on Monday night —  three men standing side by side at lecterns, in what is by now a very familiar formation. Just before that briefing for the press took place, one of those men, the Taoiseach, had given a speech to the nation piped in to the 9 o’clock news.