‘How to elect more women.’ - Speech delivered by Eóin Murray, NWCI at Conference organised by the D

Published: Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Dublin
20th of January, 2012.

"We've been asked to look at the issue of why more women should be involved in politics.
About six years ago, almost to the day, I found myself standing outside a United Nations school in the Gaza strip as an election monitor. For much of the previous year I had been involved in a campaign for quotas with local civil society, particularly women's rights organisations. We successfully secured a 20% zipped list quota system.
As the boxes were opened and the ballots counted the scale of a Hamas victory became clear. The primary beneficiaries of the quota system were Hamas. It became very clear to me - at that sad moment - that quotas must only be the beginning of any campaign. Quotas can lead to a position where conservative and reactionary elites keep control of the political system and it is up to all of us to make sure that this doesn't happen in Ireland."

Click here to read the speech in full....