The election date is set. The parties have launched their election campaigns. Let the gender battle commence. When the shit hit the fan last November I made a pledge to self and country on my blog: votes for women. Not, of course, because we are morally superior beings. 
But because we, and the so-called female agenda, are, and have historically been, under-represented. In the 30th Dail, just 22 out of the total 166 seats were held by women, one of the lowest levels of representation in Europe. A recent survey of the level of representation in the lower houses of national parliaments in 30 EU member states and accession countries puts Ireland in an embarrassing 25th place.
I, along with most concerned citizens of this once great nation state, have been champing at the bit to vote in some new blood. And so imagine, if you will, my general delirium when our first piece of election material flopped though the letterbox this week.
Yes! It’s for a woman! She’ll definitely get my number one… oh bollocks, she’s standing for X party. Now I will vote for a woman, but not for X party. Not now, not ever. However fine her double X chromosome pedigree might be, X party is not getting my vote.
Eamon Gilmore was shown launching his party’s election campaign surrounded by scarlet-suited female candidates (“The Gilmore Girls”). It could have been Richard Branson and his Virgin air stewardesses. It was scarily reminiscent of “Blair’s babes” of the British Labour election landslide in 1997. Or Berlusconi’s babes for that matter. I deeply resent women being used as political accessories and prettification for powerful men. And I wonder if it’s a cynical move which will be exploited by parties who want to make it big this time: get the women voters out by giving them a token woman to vote for.
According to Adrian Kavanagh at Irish General Election 2011 Facts and Figures, the declared female candidates (as of 2nd February) were as follows:
Labour: 26.5%
Sinn Fein: 17.5%
Fine Gael: 15.5%
Fianna Fail: 13.5%
The Green Party: 11.5% (with more yet to be declared)
There is no female Sinn Fein candidate in 37 constituencies and no female Fianna Fail candidate in 33 constituencies. ” Well, bang goes that theory…
Come February 25th, decisions will need to be made. Do I put person before party? Gender before all other considerations? What is the X factor for the politicians who will get my vote? Out of 20 candidates for my area only two are women. And because of aforementioned party allegiances, one is a definite no-vote for me. My two favourite candidates are both men. If I vote for my values, I am not voting for women. Do I vote for the individual or the bigger picture? Which matters more: to me, to the country, to history?
In my own constituency, there’s a female and a male candidate from the party which usually gets my first preferences; so that’s fairly straightforward – she gets No.1 and he gets No.2. But then there’s also a woman on the ticket of a party which I would not normally vote for unless there was water-boarding involved. Then, on the other hand, one of the strongest messages to our politicians that we want things to change very, very radically would be the election of as many women as possible. Lucy’s piece is making me think that maybe the female candidate from the-party-that-must-not-be-named should get a preference after all . . . .
Apropos of nothing, I’m just curious as to when this ‘once’ was when Ireland was ‘a great country’. Was I on holiday at the time?
I’m voting for a woman, a former community nurse, but it’s based more on the fact that she is very engaged at a local level and has relatively clear ideological underpinings within her manifesto/campaign proposal than because of her sex or gender.
I generally don’t vote in general elections but given the current circumstances I feel that it’s best to try to help that kind of ‘on the ground’ voice to be heard at the level of Dail debate, especially in relation to issues of poverty, social exlcusion, the environment and sustainable employment.
My reasons for not usually voting in elections are based on my belief that power is by no means centralised at the level of government. Leinster House is empty right now and the state institutions continue to function in the current manifestations while everyone gets on with their struggles and toils.
While I fully accept that my views are probably marginal compared to most, I believe that women have always played an integral role at the level of community and that their collective power, though not exclusively female-based, is often exercised at this level, even though it is not publicised as often in comparison to public representative type politics.
If there’s one illustration of this that comes to mind most clearly, its the power that women used to fight against drug dealers in Dublin during the 1990s. Though Tony Gregory is perhaps more famously known as the independent who struck a deal with FF to gain serious concessions for the inner-city, it was the collective action at community level that provided him with the ‘mandate’ and power-base to become elected in the first place.
As Foucault (i think) said, power is diffuse.
And also, how come men are nearly always first in here when it’s about depression or politics?
I am so sick of hearing the word ‘Reform’, as far as I can
see the issue of gender-representation should be
addressed at policy level . Given that no party (afaic)
addresses the issue of gender-representation, I do
wonder if the problem is lack of anything approaching
understanding of the concept of parity of esteem and
representation ?
Sites involved in discussion on the issue include:
http://www.politicalreform.ie
http://www.nwci.ie
and there is a Facebook Page (for which I haven’t currently
got the link) called the ’50-50 group’.
Irish Political parties claim funding on the basis of party
‘size’, i.e, the amount of TDs returned. We should be
looking at penalising parties who do not fund adequate
political training for women in the form of apprenticeship,
internship, and recruitment should be a matter of law imo.
14 years of wealth and equality legislation by
the FF/PD/GN parties, and not one of them has applied
the rules of gender-equality to their selections and
employment policies = *ain’t good enough*. Some
hacks will argue that conventions seek the return of
1/2 or 1/3 women but as we can see that is a lip-service.
I am currently dumping email Social media election
pamphlets into ‘a GE11 filter’, cos all I can see is
the same old soundbyte and hyperbole regarding
buzz-words and not actual reform at any level.
Well said Christine. I agree wholeheartedly about it being dealt with at policy level. This whole thing is treated pretty much as a joke – while the wishy-washy argument of ‘women don’t seem attracted to politics – highlights an even stinkier problem. A bunch of grown boy gobshites have just sunk our country into veritable ruin, so I’d personally like to see a different mish-mash entirely, including a new welly of women in the Dail. We’re an embarrassment compared to the rest of Europe.
Thanks for highlighting this issue. It’s depressing to see the lack of progress on this.
I know that quotas are divisive. In a ideal world nobody wants them but the world we live in is far from ideal. Also they are working elsewhere:
In Belgium female representation rose from 13% to 35% (2007) in 12 years after candidate quotas were introduced.
In Spain the same effect was observed with representation rising from 27% to 36% (2008) in 12 years.
In France where parties are required to field as many female candidates as men and are penalised financially for failing to do so, representation rose from 11% to 19% (2007) in 10 years
In several cases the quotas are legally binding but in some very successful instances quotas are voluntary and are adopted on a party by party basis. Sweden has 47% female representation on this basis, the second highest in the world after Rwanda (53%).
Here’s a brilliant website with full details: http://www.quotaproject.org/
Wow, thanks for all those stats Eleanor – very interesting. I must admit still having reservations about quotas in case poor candidates are put forward merely on the basis of gender, but at least that shows it does work (in terms of numbers anyway).
What are the reasons why there aren’t more women in national politics here, and in other countries even with quotas? Are there better means of reform than simply a gender quota?
The political system we have inherited was pretty much exclusively designed by men, with men in mind. How would it be different if it had been designed by women, or with female representation equally in mind? There are clearly aspects of our current (national) political culture that do not encourage women to take part – what are they?
On the other hand we seem to have had remarkable (if recent) success in this country with female Presidents who were not inhibited in showing female qualities in office – something I’m really proud of as an Irishman. There doesn’t seem to have been a big spillover into congressional politics though. Why not?
Perhaps a reformed Senate would be a good starting point to launch representational female politics? (And when I say reformed, I mean a Senate that is not irrelevant!)
Perhaps Inda and Happy Gilmore could be persuaded to actively lean towards the very best female candidates who don’t make the Dail in their nominations to the Senate this time round?
Good points being made by everyone here and I really like Patrick’s ideas relating to the Senate. I’ve been trying to keep tabs of the numbers of female candidates being selected in this election myself and the numbers are not good!
http://geographyspecialinterestgroup.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/gendercandsge2011/
“On the other hand we seem to have had remarkable (if recent) success in this country with female Presidents who were not inhibited in showing female qualities in office – something I’m really proud of as an Irishman. There doesn’t seem to have been a big spillover into congressional politics though. Why not?”
Interestingly , it is the fact that we have had a succession
of female presidents that has pushed us slightly above
sub-saharan levels of representation. I attended a NWCI/EU
talk on this issue and it was quite clear from surveys that
the voter is gender-neutral and does not have a problem
voting for women. the problems occur at political party
level (there are no funds for proper development of women’s
groups). I do not think that equality laws apply to our
parliament AND work-programmes such as internships
are vaguely funded. The problem seems to be at policy level
and should be addressed there. latest figures published
by Claire Mc Ging point to about 14% (optimistically)
if the majority of selected women are actually returned.
Claire reads the antiroom, so she would be best placed
to break the figures down
Thanks. The figure of 14% tallies well with female representation in the last Dail (22/166 = 13% ish). I take your point that this may have been on the increase due to female Presidency, but wonder at the same time if it would have naturally increased to this (still very low) level through the 90s and 00′s anyway?
Interesting point about voters.
I really welcome this debate so thanks to dreamingaloud for getting it going.
C Murray
Thanks for mentioning the 50 50 Group. Our online details are http:5050-group.com/blog
or http://www.facebook.com/the5050group or on twitter http://www.twitter.com/the5050group
We’re a new group that grew out of a frustration with the fact that the representation of women in the Dail is falling rather than growing. We have been amazed at the number of people who share our frustration and who are now starting their own branches of the Group around the country. At national and local level, we are lobbying for equal representation in Irish Politics, In fact our vision for the Future is fifty fifty by 2020.
We are in favour of quotas. Not because we think they are a perfect solution they aren’t but because we believe that we need something drastic to jerk our society out of complacency. According to Professor Yvonne Galligan of Queens University Belfast, if we don’t take direct action and we nonetheless succeed in increasing female representation by about 3% in consecutive elections, then we are still looking at beyond 2050 before we get any critical mass.
We believe that given the stats for GE11 that even a 3% increase is highly optimistic.
Therefore there is no other way to effect change than to legally oblige political parties – who are the gatekeepers of the ballot paper – to take action.
A quota of say 30% for 3 elections would at least give the electorate the CHOICE of voting for a women.
Until someone comes up with a better solution to redressing the balance then it’s high time that we gave quotas a chance.
Thank you all for comments. A very civilised discussion! Would that this sort of thing happened in the Dail.
Owensie – I totally agree re the local level. I do always vote, but I turn my own energies to building and supporting intiatives at the level of our local community. It is where the individual can have most effect. And I agree at the local level women are most engaged.
Great stats and source of info Eleanor – thanks. Rwanda – wow!
David, glad I made you reconsider. I passed the ads for X woman today on the road, I am really trying to make myself reconsider, but…
Patrick – totally agree about Presidents, and Senate.
Tell me people, what are you using as your own decision making criteria?
Adrian – thanks for the stats – hope you get lots of visits the next few weeks, it’s a great resource.
I thought my preferred party would have put a female candidate in my district, but as they didn’t I had to investigate others and I found an interesting candidate that I wouldn’t have given much too consideration to otherwise.
I’m disappointed that there wasn’t more of a selection of female candidates. One argument I often hear is that there aren’t many women in politics because people don’t vote for them..well, it’s a bit hard to vote for them, if there’s only one or two from parties you don’t like.
Exactly scamorza. Good point, well made.
@Patrick treacy
I think the number since inception of the Dáil has been 4.9%
overall, there seems little commitment beyond the dynastic
aspect to encourage women to politics.
Imo if that were tied to funding based on return of TDs,
it would ameliorate rapidly, the other problem mentioned
was ‘a laddish political culture’. Senior male politicos seem
to have little problem advancing the careers of those
young men whom they feel mirror their concerns/politics.
I’m lucky that my preferred party have put a woman forward to contest this election. They’re the only ones to have done so in my constituency. On the one hand, it makes me that bit happier about my own leanings. On the other hand, it’s disappointing that only people with my particular political inclination have the opportunity to vote for a woman in my constituency.