The Women's Council Blog
Lucy Keaveney: Did you know that Irish Women’s Rugby is doing great? Here is why you probably didn’t
Posted on March 05, 2013
The Irish Women’s Rugby Team won their first Triple Crown last Saturday in Lasswade, a few miles south of Edinburgh. They beat Scotland 30-3 in an electrifying match. Full back Niamh Briggs got the star player award, kicking every penalty and conversion opportunity, as well as scoring the final try.
Anthea McTeirnan: The struggle for reproductive justice in Ireland – where are we now?
Posted on February 20, 2013
A few weeks ago I was asked to speak at a planning meeting for the newly named Abortion Rights Campaign. I was to follow Moninne Griffith of Marriage Equality, who was there to talk about running an effective, inspirational campaign that changed hearts and minds; and Clare Daly TD, whose passionate speeches always deliver hearts and minds.
My task was to look at where we are now in our struggle for reproductive justice. With his usual impeccable timing, earlier that week David Bowie had released his first single for a decade and called it, rather helpfully, Where Are We Now?.
It was the perfect place to start. Where are we now? How did we get here? And where are we going?
Aoife Campbell: I am a feminist because...
Posted on February 01, 2013
I am a feminist because I believe that a person’s sex or gender should not determine their life experiences. Misogyny, sexism and violence compound the every day experience of living in a world where a socially defined characteristic such a gender is central to a person’s identity. I remember my early teens as the age where I became acutely aware of what being a girl meant. Distinctly, I remember becoming increasingly uncomfortable about my body and what growing in to a woman’s body potentially meant for me. In an all female Catholic school social norms connected with being a ‘lady’ were reinforced, receiving sex education which shamelessly defined women as sexually absent ‘mothers’ who should not lower themselves for anything less than a heterosexual, subservient and modest future. Paradoxically, all forms of media around me defined women as sexually available objects with a duty to be conventionally attractive and to please men, while my family and older peers warned me of the dangers of walking places alone, dressing a certain way and engaging in any kind of activity which could leave me vulnerable to male danger.
Barbara Scully: A Mammy's Lament
Posted on December 06, 2012
My eldest daughter is just one of the thousands of young Irish people who have emigrated from this soggy, damp, depressed, misty little island in order to find a better way of living on a foreign shore.
She and her boyfriend have made a new life in Perth, Western Australia. Right over on the other side of the world. The sun shines a lot, jobs are plentiful, salaries are high (as is the cost of living) and there is a wonderful outdoor lifestyle. Carla is 25 and for the moment she is enjoying the adventure.
Eoin Murray - Women on Boards are good for Business
Posted on December 03, 2012
In October the EU Commission – famed for its consensus driven politics – ended a meeting in acrimony. The cause was Commissioner Viviane Reding’s proposal to compel top companies to include more women on their Boards. The split was fascinating. The five women Commissioners (including the Irish and British) are reported to have opposed the initiative. But the major economic Commissioners all supported it.
Reding and Barosso vowed to fight another day. Two weeks ago a watered down version of their proposals was passed by the Commission. Now the Parliament and Council of Ministers will have to decide on them.
Eoin Murray - Is our work here really done?
Posted on November 01, 2012
A report released last week by the World Economic Forum has generated quite a bit of comment. Not least amongst it by Eilis O’Hanlon in the Sunday Independent. O’Hanlon uses the headlines of the WEF report to argue that Ireland is the fifth best place in the world to be a woman. But, for a variety of reasons the report is skewed.
Jem McCarron - Co-Editor of Women's Views on News "Half of us are Women"
Posted on January 04, 2012
Half of us are Women
When I took on my role at feminist news site Women's Views on News (WVoN), I knew I was doing something positive towards a cause I had always supported. Little did I know how much it would deepen my conviction that feminism is an essential movement and that women around the world need to be more vigilant than ever. Just maintaining the ground we've gained since women started fighting for equal rights presents a challenge, let alone continuing to balance the scales.
Fiona Buckley - Gender Quotas
Posted on October 25, 2011
This article first appeared in Public Affairs Ireland July/August.
Gender Quotas - Public Affairs Institute, June 2011
Women in Politics - Fiona Buckley
Posted on May 05, 2011
On 25 February 2011, 25 women were elected to Dáil Éireann. This figure represents a numerical and percentage (15 per cent) high in terms of women's political representation in Ireland. However, when compared internationally, the new 'record' is meager. Ireland currently lies in 74th position in a world classification table of women's representation in parliament compiled by the inter-parliamentary union (IPU). Of the 27 EU member states, Ireland is ranked in 20th position. Only 86 of a total of 566 candidates were women at the recent election. However, the average success rate for both men and women candidates was the same at 29 per cent indicating that there is no bias against female candidates amongst the Irish electorate. So if men and women candidates have as good a chance as one another of getting elected, why are women so slow to put themselves forward for election? The answer lies in what is often termed the '4 Cs' of care (childcare or otherwise), culture, cash and confidence. A fifth 'C' - candidate selection - is also used to explain the low numbers of women contesting election on behalf of political parties. Together, these are the main barriers facing women when entering politics.
Let's talk about Sarah
Posted on April 20, 2011
Who is Sarah? Just your typical, overworked but extremely dedicated public representative, apparently. An average TD who toils from morning to night in the name of such good causes as human rights in Asia, tackling climate change, and... swimming pools.
To explain: Sarah is the star of "A Day in the Life of a TD", the comic strip-style brochure published by the Houses of the Oireachtas which is given out to visitors to Leinster House. 
We follow her throughout what is apparently a day like any other, in which she cycles to work (the Dáil) in the morning and then spends the packed day dealing with all manner of local and global issues.