The newly elected leader of Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin, called for more women to get involved in politics in Wednesday’s PRIME TIME on RTE 1. This is a very welcome step forward and we hope that Mr Martin will follow up this call with positive actions in order to reach gender parity in the Irish political arena.
Fianna Fáil is currently the political party that had the worst record of the established parties for running female candidates in the 2007 election, according to Áine Kerr, political correspondent in the Irish Independent (Weekend Review, 22 Jan. 2010, p.3.)
Its one thing for MM to signal that he wants to see more women in politics. Its another thing to do it! FF have all the information, expertise and women available to make it happen. But its not happening – at this election anyway. Only 7 women selected so far, by my count. So, fine words are not working…only rules that require a gender balance will break this party’s mysogynistic culture.