Alison O’Connor: Amid rare unanimity in Dáil, Martin can lead change on gender equality

Change is required all the way through from the early days in school up to the Cabinet table

What a legacy it would be to put in place the rock-solid foundations of a transformed State approach to female safety in Ireland that would begin early on in the lives of children and extend its way out all across levels of society. Picture: Gareth Chaney / Collins Photos

There is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind. Add to that the beginning of the year stuff and its attendant resolutions, and you have a whole other layer of thought. So it’s easy to imagine a seriously high level of contemplation being done by Micheál Martin — a man who will no longer be our Taoiseach this time next year.

There is a strong chance he will no longer be leader of Fianna Fáil either, so it is deadline on the double time. A man who entered politics around 37 years ago, and has been climbing that greasy ladder ever since, can now count in months the amount of time left before he faces a virtually inevitable full stop.

In terms of achievements, he is already lauded for introducing the smoking ban in 2004. This was a literal life-saving law, as well as bringing a host of other health-boosting measures that will survive long beyond his political career. Many other retired political leaders do not have anything tangible they can point towards and say, That happened on my watch and it is still making a difference to the people who voted for me, and even those who did not.

As a son, a husband, a father of daughters, a brother, a leader of a country of which half the population is female, what a legacy it would be to put in place the rock-solid foundations of a transformed State approach to female safety in Ireland that would begin early on in the lives of children and extend its way out all across levels of society.

In the Dáil on Wednesday — its first meeting since the Christmas break — an unusual thing happened. The first two voices to be heard were female. Initially it was the leas-ceann comhairle, Catherine Murphy, who raised the death of Ashling Murphy and expressed the condolences of TDs. Immediately following that, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald was on her feet saying the murder of this young woman must mark a turning point. 

“Leaders must lead.” 

How right she called it when she said the roots of sexism and misogyny in Ireland run deep.

Then it was the time of a man who was first elected to Cork City Council in 1985 and now has less than 12 months left to make a lasting mark. Martin said “men need to listen more and men need to hear women more”.

Ashling Murphy isn’t the first young woman to be murdered violently in this manner and we need to eliminate this from our society.

“Indeed all aspects of what I would term the undermining of women in a misogynistic way, or in any other form and that takes a multi-faceted approach, embracing prevention and protection and security but also education.”

In short, said Martin, what is needed is “not just legislation, initiatives, but a sea change in culture to eliminate this.”

Indeed, because as we know culture can eat legislation and initiatives for breakfast. It has to run far deeper than that. By simply looking around him that particular afternoon, the Taoiseach might have noticed the lack of balance between the numbers of male and female TDs, same as every other day in the Dáil Chamber.

At the last general election just 36 of the 159 deputies elected were women. Last summer, Labour’s Ivana Bacik became the 37th, bringing it up to 23% female; so three-quarters male. Bacik was only the 131st woman ever elected.

It brought to mind a report published just before Christmas by Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman, on gender norms in Ireland. He highlighted that while approximately one in two people believe that gender equality has been achieved in leadership positions in the workplace and in politics in Ireland, roughly one in six believed that women do not have the necessary qualities and skills to fill positions of responsibility in politics.

Ireland has a smaller share of female senior ministers and senior administrators in government than the EU average, as well as a smaller percentage of women in parliament.

“In the political sphere, these norms uphold the view that leadership is a masculine characteristic and that men inherently make better leaders than women,” pointed out the report.

These are not new facts. But it is a sign of the mountain there is to climb — the extent of cultural revolution needed — that change is required all the way through from the early days in school up to the gender-imbalanced Cabinet table.

Later on Wednesday evening in the Dáil, there was time allocated for statements on violence against women. We don’t have enough women deputies but it was a powerful image to see around 17 of the Dáil’s 37 in the chamber. Our women legislators stood and spoke, a number quite rawly, of their own experiences and the need for change.

There were around nine male TDs present. To be fair, deputies are asked, because of Covid, not to attend unless necessary. Many, we hope, were watching from their offices. But the strength and passion of that many elected female voices in that space, that is traditionally dominated by men speaking, was something really different.

Minister of State Anne Rabbitte added her voice to those of so many women who have told us their stories of being left traumatised by their experiences over decades. She told her colleagues of a phone call at home in the middle of the night where she was told, “We will get you.” The emotion in her voice showed how the fright of that call remains with her.

It was just her, she said, on her own, in the darkness. Her safety robbed, security violated.

“Should I wake the children? Are we safe?” wondered the Galway East deputy, a widow. 

“Will the guards take a phone call seriously? Not all men, but all women will identify with the feelings that come following these encounters.”

In his contribution, Offaly TD Barry Cowen said those in the Dáil now have a duty to set aside politics to sort out violence against women. A few moments later Mayo Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh said she appreciated that Justice Minister Helen McEntee was reaching out across party lines in order to bring about changes.

At the beginning of the debate, McEntee, who will shortly bring forward the third national strategy on domestic, sexual, and gender based violence, told members from every party that “we must all work together to achieve a shared goal of zero tolerance of violence and abuse against women”.

In his earlier contribution, the Taoiseach said a cross-party approach was required. He is now the person with the power to lead that. He does head up a three-party Coalition government, which makes everything more complicated, but what was said on Wednesday indicates his colleagues, from all parties, are up for it.

What we saw in the Dáil this week was rare unanimity, agreement that massive change is needed. Our national legislators spoke with almost one voice. If ever there was a time to grasp this situation, it is now. 

It really would be something to walk away from the office of the Taoiseach knowing you had made such a difference to one half of your population.