“Shocking the system? Looking at the gender quota proposal”
Claire McGing, Government of Ireland IRCHSS scholar, John and Pat Hume scholar, NUI Maynooth, Dublin 50-50 Group
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This is proposed
•Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011
•Part 5: State Funding of Political Parties and Gender Balance:
•Head 31 – Insertion of a new section in Part III of the Electoral Act 1997 – gender balance amongst candidates of a qualified political party
(1) Provide that following the next general election after the commencement of this Act half of every payment to a qualified party under Part III of the Act shall be contingent on at least 30% of the candidates whose candidatures were authenticated by the qualified political party at the last preceding general election being women and at least 30% being men.
(2) Provide that on the day that is 7 years after polling day at the general election referred to in subsection (1) the threshold shall rise to 40% for women candidates and 40% for men candidates for the next following general elections.
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“Soft” Measures
•Tried, tested and usually fail!
•Fine Gael Equality for Women project (2004): “At the next general election [2007], the target should be to increase the number of female Fine Gael TDs from two to between eight and ten. The number of senators should increase from one to four or five”.
– 5 women TDs & 3 senators elected
•Fianna Fáil Gender Equality Action Plan (2004): 20% women candidates in 2007
– 13% women candidates
•Labour had a 30% target ahead of the 2011 general election
– 27% women candidates
•Greens had a 40% target for the 2009 local elections
– 22% women candidates
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•Sinn Féin had a 30% target the 2009 local elections
– 23% women candidates
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Questioning Quotas
•Will a quota take away the power of local party members to select candidates?
•Will ‘unqualified’ women be selected?
•Will a quota result in ‘parachuted’ candidates?
•Will women candidates be selected as ‘tokens’?
•Will parties have trouble recruiting women to run?
•Does a quota restrict voter choice?
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