Women in the 31st Dail
Posted on February 28, 2011 at 12:14 PM
We knew going into this election that Ireland's embarrassing record on women in politics was unlikely to improve significantly. Just 15% of candidates who ran for election were women.
So, now that the results are (almost all) in: how does the 31st Dáil compare in terms of women's participation?
I am pleased to see we are headed towards a slight improvement. With counts complete in all but one constituency there are 25 women elected, and it is possibly that we will see one more added to this number by the time all the final result is declared.
Prior to this, we had never had more than 23 women TDs and every single Irish Dáil had been at least 86% male. Now it seems we can look forward to women being 15-16% of our representatives, up from 13.8% before the election.
Most encouragingly, voters have elected women to the Dáil in equal proportion to the number of women who ran. While the resulting number of women is still all too low, it suggests that voters in Ireland have no bias whatsoever and are only too happy to vote for women when given the opportunity. The problem, clearly, is with the political parties who refused to run significant numbers of women candidates. The solution must come from them too. The NWCI is urging the new government to commit to introducing measures, including legislation, to ensure that no future Irish election sees so few women on ballot papers.
Here are the women who have been elected to the 31st Dáil so far:
Fine Gael
Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan)
Aine Collins (Cork North-West)
Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid-West)
Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South)
Catherine Byrne (Dublin South-Central)
Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South-East)
Mary Mitchell-O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire)
Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy (Laois-Offaly)
Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath)
Michelle Mulherin (Mayo)
Regina Doherty (Meath East)
Labour
Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny)
Kathleen Lynch (Cork North-Central)
Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid-West)
Roisin Shortall (Dublin North-West)
Joan Burton (Dublin West)
Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City)
Ciara Conway (Waterford)
Ann Ferris (Wicklow)
Fianna Fáil
No women elected
Sinn Féin
Sandra McClellan (Cork East)
Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central)
United Left Alliance
Clare Daly (Dublin North)
Joan Collins (Dublin South-Central)
Independents
Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central)
Catherine Murphy (Kildare North)
As well as these women, there were a number from the last Dáil who either decided not to contest the election, or who did so but lost their seats.
6 women TDs did not contest the election. They are:
Mary Harney (Independent/PDs)
Mary Upton (Labour)
Liz McManus (Labour)
Olwyn Enright (Fine Gael)
Beverley Flynn (Fianna Fáil)
Mary Wallace (Fianna Fáil)
A further 8 lost their seats, including all of the incumbent Fianna Fáil women:
Mary White (Green)
Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael)
Margaret Conlon (Fianna Fáil)
Mary Coughlan (Fianna Fáil)
Mary Hanafin (Fianna Fáil)
Aíne Brady (Fianna Fáil)
Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fáil)
Máire Hoctor (Fianna Fáil)
Comments
8 Marys gone (one a Maire) - only 2 Marys in - that's a big shift in Irish politics!
Well done for putting all the above information together. I searched the web for a list of the women elected to the 31st Dail and the total number but could not find these details anywhere until I found your blog.
Keep up the good work.
Again, thanks for pulling this information together for those of us interested.
I have to say that I believe that part of the reason women are not getting nominated is the fact that they don't get involved. I can only speak for my own limited experience, but I know for a fact that in my own rural area when there are political meetings there are only ever 2 women present - my mother and our female county councillor. Whenever there has been canvassing there are always very few female canvassers.
I hope this will change and I am glad to see the number of women in the Dáil increase, but I do not think that legislation which positively discriminates in favour of women is the way to resolve the situation.
All of these need to be addressed in a serious way if the situation is to change, as it must. Comprehensive recommendations for dealing with each of these issues have already been made by the Oireachtas report on women's participation in politics; now we just need action.
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