Women in Politics - Fiona Buckley

Posted on May 05, 2011 at 01:50 PM

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.

In relation to care, a recent report by the National Women's Council of Ireland (Who Cares?: 2009) showed that over the course of a week, women spend on average a fifth of their day engaged in care and household work, three times as much as men do. These facts indicate that there is a persistent cultural bias towards traditional gender roles in Ireland. The expectation placed on many women to maintain the customary role of main home-maker, prevents or delays many women from entering politics. In relation to cash, the 2010 CSO Women and Men in Ireland Report indicates that women's annual income is around 70 per cent of that of men. With not as much cash at their disposal, many women find it difficult to enter politics and fund campaigns. Confidence, or the lack thereof, is noted by many women as an impediment to their access to politics. The masculine image of politics expressed by comments such as 'clubby', 'macho', and 'old boys' network', is one which many women feel unable to break through. Political institutions are gendered whereby the structures, processes and procedures were created by men at a time when women were still fighting for equal political rights. This created a culture where men became the primary reference group and the notion of men as 'natural' leaders emerged. Recent research by Yvonne Galligan and Kathleen Knight (2009) suggest "women's absence from the legislature is taken as a given rather than seen as a problem of democratic legitimacy" in the Republic of Ireland. We're trapped in a cultural mindset where we expect our politicians to be male. Finally, party candidate selection procedures have long acted as a barrier against the selection of women candidates. Party activists will tend to favour the 'tried and tested' male incumbent candidate at selection conventions. As a result, it is often difficult for 'new' women candidates to get selected.

Representation is a core concept in the study and practice of politics. It's about who represents, what is represented, and how it is represented. The normative view is that women's presence in national legislatures and in political decision-making is essential to the quality of the democratic process. There is growing evidence that female representatives, although not exclusively, have been found to identify with promoting a more gender-equal society. The effects of women's under-representation in Ireland were plain to see in last December's budget when the government introduced a raft of cuts that disproportionally affected women. Women are more likely than men to work in minimum wage jobs, occupy the low paid public service positions and be in receipt of social welfare (childcare, carer's allowance, widow's pensions just to mention a few).

So what can be done to encourage more women into politics? There are a raft of measures that could be introduced ranging from mentoring to training to dedicated fundraising for women candidates but gender quotas have been identified as an important contributor to changes in women's political representation worldwide. They give women access to power structures and the ability to participate in the agenda-setting process. As it may take decades before all social, cultural and political barriers preventing equal representation of women are eradicated, many view quotas as a 'kick-start' in the process of getting more women elected to parliament. Introducing quota provisions in party politics has been considered a legitimate equal opportunity measure in many countries. If one recognises that barriers exist that prevent women from entering politics (as were earlier addressed by the '5 Cs'), then quotas are not inequitable, but, instead, compensation for the many obstacles that women face.

Analysis of the gender quota discourse in Ireland reveals that resistance to quotas is connected primarily to the belief that quotas are in conflict with the principle of merit. Some consider quotas to be a form of discrimination and a violation of the principles of fairness of competence. Yet, the 'merit' and 'fairness' arguments rarely arise when we hear of the local GAA (male) star being parachuted onto the party ticket! In the history of the State, male representation in Dáil Éireann has never fallen below 85 per cent. Imagine a scenario where 85 per cent of the seats in Dáil Éireann were held by TDs from Dublin. Would non-Dubliners accept such a situation? Envisage the impact of this geographically biased representation on policy-making. The likelihood is that legislation would take on a strong Dublin centric focus, and those of us 'beyond the pale' would lose out on the 'carve up' of government spoils. Thankfully, such a situation does not exist (or should not exist!). Why? The country is divided into 43 electoral constituencies, each with a geographical quota of either 3 seats, 4 seats or 5 seats. As Article 16.2.3 of Bunreacht na hÉireann advises "the ratio between the number of members to be elected at any time for each constituency and the population of each constituency, as ascertained at the last preceding census, shall, so far as it is practicable, be the same throughout the country". Essentially, the system provides for geographical quotas to ensure the Dáil consists of deputies from across the country. If quotas exist for geographical balance, why not introduce them for gender balance?

Many question the usefulness of quotas in relation to independent candidates where no candidate selection processes are employed. Indeed less than ten per cent of all independent candidates were women in the 2011 general election. However, gender quotas have been associated with role model effects. As more women are elected into political office, as has been evidenced by the introduction of quotas elsewhere, women's political efficacy tends to increase. Elected women become role models for aspiring women candidates. The result is an increase in the number of women who put themselves forward for election (Galligan and Knight, 2009).

The 2009 Joint Oireachtas Report Women's Participation in Politics has recommended the introduction of legislation whereby no party can have more than two-thirds of their election candidates of one gender. The Fine Gael/Labour programme for government promises to link public funding for political parties to the level of participation by women as candidates in those parties. Whatever measures are introduced to address the under-representation of women in Irish politics, we would do well to keep in mind the words of former TD Liz O'Donnell - until we have more women participating in politics is Ireland, 'our democracy is unfinished'. (1263 words)

Fiona Buckley is a lecturer in the Department of Government, University College Cork (UCC). She specialises in gender politics, the politics of the Republic of Ireland and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is a co-founder of the 50:50 Group, a single issue national advocacy group dedicated to achieving equal representation in Irish politics.

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