Irish Examiner view: Open wide the Dáil door for women

Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, TD. In 2021, she will not be entitled to even one day’s maternity leave. Is it any wonder that barely more than one in five TDs — 22.5% — are women?

During one of those Capitol Hill hearings Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg occasionally attends, one of the challenges facing our world was underlined in a cringe-making way. One of his inquisitors, a venerable of American politics, asked Zuckerberg how Facebook makes its money. This was not a leading question; the politician did not fully understand how Facebook’s grip on the global advertising market has made Zuckerberg one of the world’s most powerful figures. A veteran footsoldier of democracy was pitched against one of the great innovators of our time. That situation was, and always will be, an uneven match. It showed — glaringly — what happens when political systems weaken themselves by making participation unattractive for a cohort who might foster positive change. The mood of the day, one that sees conspiracy everywhere, might suggest that these constraints are not accidental but rather remain a very effective old boys’ club sleight.

The choice offered to America’s voters last month shows how this process plays out. It is unlikely that, without prompting from a cadre of informed staffers, Joe Biden, 78, or Donald Trump, 74, would have laid a glove on Zuckerberg. Those men exemplify how limited choices can be when political gatekeepers keep the greasy pole all too well greased. That dynamic is why the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen must deal with Boris Johnson. Johnson might have been elected even if Labour had offered a more attractive alternative but he might not have the shackles-off majority he now exploits.