Menu
Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— December 2009 - January 2010
Women in government
appalling record on wom-
en’s participation in politics. We account for
half the Irish population, yet the propor-
tion of women TDs has never exceeded
per cent. To put it another way, the Dáil has
always been at least % male. In fact, over
recent years, Ireland’s rate of women’s politi-
cal representation has actually reduced dras-
tically. In , Ireland was in
th
position
in the world classification of women’s rep-
resentation in the lower or single house of
national parliaments. However, by October
Ireland had fallen to
th
position,
ranked equally with Djibouti in East Africa.
Currently we have only women TDs out
of (.%). This is well below both the
world average and the internationally-rec-
ommended figure of % (a critical mass of
women politicians).
This has had a number of negative conse-
quences. It means our democracy is not truly
representative and it also means that voter
choice in Ireland is severely restricted. In
the General Election, women consti-
tuted only % of candidates overall. At least
% of constituencies had no women candi-
dates from either of the two largest political
parties at that election: Fianna Fáil fielded
no women candidates in constituencies
and Fine Gael had no women standing in
constituencies. In fact, in five constituencies
out of the total of , no women candidates
stood, even as independents. There is strong
public support for changing the status quo
to increase voter choice and Ireland also has
strong international obligations to achieve
better representation levels.
Since my election as a Senator in ,
one of my key campaign priorities has been
to try and increase the numbers of women in
politics. With this in mind, last December I
organised an event in Leinster House to com-
memorate the
th
anniversary of Constance
Markievicz’s election in the general
election, the first in which women had the
right to vote. I invited all living former and
current women members of the Oireachtas,
in total, to take up seats in the Dáil cham-
ber; a powerful way of celebrating the women
elected, but also of showing how few women
have ever been elected in our nation’s history.
The photograph, displayed on the Oireachtas
With only 23 women TDs Ireland equals Djibouti in East Africa
i v a n a b a c i k
Oireachtas members past and present
“Legislation
should provide
initially, based on
the Belgian model,
that no party
could have more
than two-thirds of
their candidates
of one gender in
the next general
election”
web site, represents the only time that the Dáil
chamber has ever been half full of women!
Then in April , I got the agreement
of the Joint Oireachtas Justice Committee,
of which I am a member, to establish a Sub-
Committee on Women’s Participation in
Politics. Chaired by Brendan Kenneally TD,
the Sub-Committee was asked to analyse the
challenges facing women in entering politics,
to examine potential initiatives to encourage
more women to consider a career in politics,
and to make recommendations to enhance
the role of women in politics.
As Rapporteur to the Sub-Committee, I
drafted a report which was adopted by the
Joint Committee, with overwhelming cross-
party support. The report was launched on
th
November, and has engendered livelty media
discussion since then. I am optimistic that its
recommendations will be debated in both the
Dáil and Seanad in coming months, and ulti-
mately adopted by the Government. So what
were our key findings? First, we examined the
challenges facing women on entry into poli-
tics, and suggested that these can be summa-
rised under five headings, the ‘five C’s’. It is
clear from research and experience elsewhere
that a whole package of reforms is necessary
to tackle each of these challenges. The report
accordingly makes a series of recommenda-
tions aimed at addressing each one.
Under the heading of childcare, we found
that the ‘long hours’ culture in politics is a
factor which discourages women in partic-
ular from being more politically active. We
recommended therefore that changes to
political party processes and Council and
Oireachtas sitting times are necessary to
ensure that childcare and other family car-
ing responsibilities can be accommodated,
both for men and women in politics. We said
that childcare supports should be provided,
the Oireachtas crèche maintained, and that
women TDs and Senators who give birth in
office should be entitled to automatic pair-
ing arrangements.
Under the cash heading, we found lack of
resources to be another major factor inhibiting
women’s progress in politics, particularly as, in
Ireland, women earn on average % less than
their male counterparts. We recommended,
among other things, the establishment of a
national fundraising campaign to finance wom-
en’s electoral campaigns and the voluntary pro-
vision of additional funds by political parties
to support women candidates.
The third heading was that of confi-
dence. Women tend to lack sufficient self-
belief to participate actively in political life
generally, and to put themselves forward
for selection in political parties. So we rec-
ommended that political parties should be
encouraged to introduce recruitment drives
specifically aimed at women seeking to iden-
tify and head-hunt women in local areas, both
as party members and potential candidates
and that mentoring and leadership training
programmes should be provided for aspir-
ing candidates.
Under the culture heading, we found
that the overall masculine image of politics
remains as a powerful barrier for women’s
increased participation. We recommended
that specific steps be taken, in particular
through the education system, to encourage
more girls and women into politics through
civic education programmes and the creation
of a national data bank of potential women
candidates, on a constituency by constitu-
ency basis.
Finally, the issue of candidate selection
procedures within political parties has been
identified in research internationally as the
single most important obstacle to women’s
political participation.
The question is how best to reform these
procedures to achieve increased numbers of
women in parliament. We reviewed the differ-
ent models for reform in different countries.
First, we found that the model of reserving
seats for women in parliament, while used in
many African and Asian countries, might be
problematic under EU gender-equality laws.
We also looked at the idea of introducing vol-
untary political party quotas, but found that
while these have been effective in some coun-
tries, notably Sweden, they require strong
commitment by individual political par-
ties, and generally take many years before
results may be seen. Experience elsewhere
in Europe, especially in Belgium and Spain,
shows that legislative electoral quotas might
be more effective in the Irish political system.
Thus, we recommended that candidate quota
legislation be adopted, to oblige each politi-
cal party to impose a maximum limit on the
proportion of candidates of any one gender
selected to run in elections at local, national
and European levels. Such legislation should
be introduced on a temporary basis only, to
ensure that when targets are met, the law
will lapse.
The legislation should provide initially,
based on the Belgian model, that no party
could have more than two-thirds of their can-
didates of one gender in the next general elec-
tion; the proportion of women required could
then be revised upwards for subsequent local
and general elections. A system of financial
penalties should be imposed, so that parties
that do not achieve the target of at least one-
third women candidates for the next general
election, for example, would receive reduced
levels of state funding as a result. Clearly,
such legislation would require support from
all the political parties to ensure that it would
be effective. But it is also clear that there is
widespread concern about the low levels of
women in Irish politics, and that the single
most effective reform for women in Ireland
would be the introduction of legislation
requiring political parties to adopt gender tar-
gets in their candidate selection processes.
Unless effective positive action measures are
adopted, Ireland will continue to languish at
the bottom of the international league tables
for women’s representation, and our democ-
racy will remain ‘unfinished’. It is up to all of
us to press for the implementation of this
important report.
