Rebellion – Will 2016 produce another for gender balance?

I have been watching RTE’s drama series Rebellion with my fifteen year old daughter. It is great the extent to which the story includes women and indeed is told from their perspectives. Whether its poverty, the status of unmarried women, the ill treatment of men and women by people in positions of power – it all serves to point out that women and men need to do battle to combat inequality.

Some interesting statistics from the Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics show that in 1918 one woman and sixty eight men were elected – 1%. Fifty one years later (1969) three women and one hundred and forty one men – 3%. Seventy four years later (1992) twenty women and one hundred forty six men were elected. Since then the figures have more or less flatlined. In the 2011 election twenty five women and one hundred and forty one men – 15%. This was three more women than in 2007. Candidate selection gender quotas have been proven in other countries to work at correcting the gender imbalance in politics.

Let’s hope they work for Ireland, we certainly need them……