Barbara Scully: Let’s Hear The Women’s Voices

Published: Sunday, November 09, 2014

I rarely get addicted to TV shows and due to my technological inadequacies I don’t binge watch either. So if I miss seeing a programme when it’s broadcast, I miss it.  But there are a couple of shows that I do my best to catch.  I especially look forward to my weekly dose of old world nutty escapism at Downton Abbey which provides the perfect antidote to the Sunday evening blues.  As last night was the series finale I am worried about next Sunday evening already. But I will cling to the only other programme on air at the moment which I try not to miss - the very brilliant ‘Connected’ on RTE 2 (10:30pm Tuesday and Thursday.)

‘Connected’ is one of the most innovative and inspired programmes that RTE has commissioned in months.  For the series six women were given cameras and asked to record video diaries and their lives over a period of months.  Initially I was very sceptical as reality TV often is just car crash TV but ‘Connected’ works on many levels. Much of its success is down to the brilliantly eclectic ‘cast’.  But a huge amount of its fascination is because it focuses on the lives of women – ordinary, extraordinary women, who are exceptionally brave in their honesty – some particularly so. 

Watching these women’s lives is mesmerising mainly because it is such a rarity on our television screens.  I have long believed that women’s stories are fascinating.  It’s why I am unapologetic about presenting a programme called The Hen House on Dublin South FM where I only interview women. 

Women’s lives often unfurl is a far more meandering way than men’s tend to.  Initially I assumed that was because of our biology and our taking time out to give birth.  But it’s more than that.  Women’s approach to life is often different too. 

We women tend to take our emotional temperatures more regularly.  We tend to look below the surface of life.  We examine not only the motivations of those around us, but our own motivations too.  And we also tend to view our decisions through the prism of how they will affect those close to us, especially those we love.  This trait has been particularly beautifully articulated by one of the women, Kate McGrew in the programme.

Women have a different perspective on life.  Therefore it follows that we can never have a healthy, balanced and equal society until that perspective becomes half of our national conversation. To ensure that happens we need more women journalists (especially opinion writers), more women broadcasters and women programme and film makers.  Not only do we need to tell our stories but they need to be heard beyond the boundaries of our own gender and that’s not easy when, to all intents and purposes, we would seem to be in the minority. 

The National Women’s Council of Ireland is as vital as organisation now as it ever was in the past.  It provides not only a platform (or a soapbox) for women to come together but also a place from where women can demand that our voices be heard, our perspective be aired.  A society that doesn’t hear and engage with women in an equal and respectful way is a society that is disconnected from itself. 

We have so much work still to do to correct centuries of inequality.  We need to continue our fight for better quality and affordable childcare, we need to continue to campaign for the work of caring to be recognised and valued in our country.  We need to continue to fight for women who face sexual, physical and psychological abuse in their daily lives. 

Along with all of this we must constantly wrestle against the image of woman as portrayed by popular culture.  We owe this not just to ourselves and our mothers and grandmothers, but to our daughters.  How can women achieve meaningful equality when we are constantly judged on our appearance?  It is our voices and our words that we want the world to take notice of, not the size of our breasts, the length of our legs or the wrinkles around our eyes. 

Today, in brand new offices, the National Women’s Council of Ireland will continue the sterling work it has been about for decades.  May this new building continue to offer women a place to come together, to polish our views, to explore our perspectives and most of all be a place from which our voices will become a roar as we finally achieve some real change. 

In the meantime can I call on our national broadcasters, RTE, TV3 and UTV Ireland to look really seriously at new ways to share women’s stories and hear women’s voices across our airwaves.  This is not only is it important but it makes really great TV.