Ireland's record on women in politics

Posted on February 21, 2011 at 10:16 AM

Senator Ivana Bacik, Labour candidate for Dun Laoghaire

Guest post by Senator Ivana Bacik, Labour Candidate for Dun Laoghaire.

Ireland has an appalling record on women's representation in politics.

In 1990, when Mary Robinson was elected as our first woman President, we were in 37th position in the Inter-Parliamentary Union rankings of women's representation in the lower or single house of national parliaments. By February 2011, we had fallen to 85th position, with 23 women Deputies, or 13.8% of the full complement of 166 TDs.

We are well below the world and European average and the internationally recommended figure of 30%. Perhaps the worst finding is that we have disimproved in the last 20 years. It is not that the number of women in our Parliament has changed greatly -- the Dáil representation has never exceeded 14% - in other words, it has always been at least 86% male -- but the fact is that other countries have improved their position since 1990, moving up the rankings.

In particular, other European countries have adopted legislation requiring political parties to select a minimum percentage of women candidates - and this has changed their ranking.

In 2009, I initiated the production of a report by the Joint Oireachtas Justice Committee on women's participation in politics. This was published in October 2009, and it recommended the introduction of legislation requiring political parties to adopt targets for the selection of women candidates, based on the model used in other EU states like Belgium and Spain.

It is vitally important that this sort of legislation is introduced. Without it, voter choice will continue to be severely restricted in Ireland. In five constituencies in the 2007 general election, there were no women candidates at all, so voters could not support a woman no matter how much they wanted to.

Local elections in 2009 were no better. Only 16% of councillors elected were women and that figure fell from previous local elections when a magnificent 17% was reached.

Voter choice remains restricted in the current general election, with women representing only 15% of the total number of approximately 560 candidates running nationally - depressingly, this is an even lower percentage than the proportion of women candidates in 2007.

We need to address the ongoing absence of women in politics as a matter of urgency.

We know what the difficulties are for women - the obstacles facing women on entry to politics may be called the five Cs - and are identified in all the international literature. These are difficulties with child care, cash, confidence, culture and candidate selection procedures.

On the childcare issue, our report recommended review of sitting times and procedures to ensure they were family-friendly. On the cash issue, we recommended the setting up of a privately-funded fund for women. To improve women's confidence, we recommended that political parties take a lead in initiating mentoring and leadership training programmes.

The issue of culture is a very important and yet intangible barrier for women. The pub and pint-buying patriarchal traditionalist culture of Irish politics is echoed and reflected in every political party. We must address it through a variety of routes.

In the education system, young women should be given female role models and there should be an advertising campaign similar to that initiated in Iceland in 1999. That had some very striking images, with a woman leader of a political party shaving in a mirror and a prominent male politician trying on high heels. These pictures were displayed publicly as part of an advertising campaign to try to challenge traditional stereotypes of male politicians.

A national databank of potential women candidates was established in Norway to get over the problem of not enough women putting themselves forward. A national non-governmental organisation, such as the National Women's Council of Ireland, could administer that on a constituency by constituency basis.

However, our recommendation on how to tackle the problem for women with candidate selection procedures was the most newsworthy - we recommended a quota model. The word "quota" sometimes conjures an image of reserved seats, with a quota of seats in a parliament for women. I stress that this is not what we recommended, although it is the model used in some countries, such as Rwanda which has achieved 56% representation in parliament by women. It is not a model we advocate, partly because there would be difficulty under European law.

We are suggesting a much more limited form of quota, an 'opportunity quota' rather than an outcome quota. An opportunity quota simply requires political parties to put forward a certain minimum number of candidates of each gender.

As it is done in Belgium, no more than two thirds of candidates can be of one gender, thus putting a cap on the number of men a party may select. This does not restrict voter choice but would increase the number of women candidates available for election by voters.

A quota does not make any imposition on voters. It simply recognises the reality of the political parties as the gatekeepers of who will go forward to face the electorate. These gatekeepers must be subjected to certain rules in terms of the number of candidates they select.

This legislation must be introduced as a matter of urgency. Experience elsewhere shows that, unless some quota is introduced, we will not change. But it need not be a permanent feature of political life; we suggested that the legislation should have an in-built sunset clause whereby it would lapse once the targets were met.

The Labour Party has already drafted 'opportunity quota' legislation, and we are committed to introducing it if elected into government on Friday.

If elected in Dun Laoghaire, I personally intend to continue pressing this issue, to ensure that change is made through legislation in the next government. Otherwise, our democracy will remain unfinished and incomplete.

Guest post by Senator Ivana Bacik, Labour Candidate for Dun Laoghaire.

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