I have always believed candidates for all parties should be chosen solely on the basis of merit – regardless of gender or any other factor.
I also believe ordinary grassroots members of political parties should be the ones who pick candidates to represent them.
For both these reasons – for many years – I’ve been a vocal opponent of gender quotas being imposed on Irish political parties (also against any other type of quota being imposed on parties).
I was wrong…
I now firmly believe I was wrong in thinking you couldn’t have one while maintaining the other. It’s very possible to have quotas and, at the same time, let ordinary members choose their candidates on basis of merit.
My political life
I’ve been involved in politics off & on for most of my life. Much of that time I have been, and still am, a member of Fianna Fáil.
I’m delighted my parliamentary party are fully supportive of the gender quotas legislation that came before Seanad Eireann today.
I hope their Amendment – proposing gender quotas also apply to Local Elections – is taken on board. (If parties thought about it, this makes complete sense for blooding new candidates ahead of next General Election).
I’m very conscious in supporting my parliamentary party on this. I’m in a minority among my party’s ordinary members. Many Fianna Fáil members are understandably opposed to the introduction of quotas – for a variety of reasons:
- grass-roots opposition to this Gender Quotas legislation is a common theme among members of all parties (from talking to friends in other parties)
- the most common reason I’ve heard for opposition is – Quotas are “undemocratic” & will result in “token women” candidates being imposed by HQ.
- the other usual argument is: Why stop with women, should there not be quotas for every other type of minority to make our Dáil truly representative?
Dealing with these issues in reverse order…
- gender is different because circa 50% of population is female & 50% male – women are not a minority & should not be regarded as such. (Also, 50% of all other sub-categories would also be female.)
- Calling any candidate a “token candidate” is unfair on both the process & individual. No one – regardless of gender – should be labelled as “token”.
Selection Conventions
I’ve attended multiple selection conventions. Anyone who can say (“hand on their heart”) all candidates have been picked on the basis of merit alone should consider politics themselves. They have obvious ability to lie with a straight face – either that or they are clearly delusional!
What now needs to happen is …
all parties should select candidates democratically at local level, u sing the rules that apply.
Contrary to popular belief one member, one vote (OMOV) selection and Quotas are not mutually exclusive.
People need to just operate within the constraints that apply when choosing candidates.
Quotas of type (for example, geographic) have been used for years without ever being called “quotas”. Grassroots members just need to adapt to the new circumstances.
In the case of my party, Fianna Fáil, this will probably mean that, for 2014 ‘locals’, we’ll operate two new types of quota – gender & younger-than-30s.
But neither should conflict with candidates still being selected on merit at local level by the local membership.
Temporary quotas
(they should become obsolete within 4 General Election cycles) are one small but important part of the overall solution to get more women involved in politics.
Temporary quotas should never be considered in isolation – instead they should be seen as a key part of the overall solution.
Where quotas will come into their own is in terms of changing the culture internally in parties. No matter how much we’d like to deny it, the culture in parties is still mildly misogynistic. This culture has filtered through to our elected chambers, where we still have just 15% female representation in Dáil – & only 100 women have ever held a Dáil seat.
This mildly misogynistic culture was never more evident than in the 2012 budget which is possibly the most misogynistic in years – possibly reflecting the fact we only have 2 women out of 15 in cabinet (both in stereotypical female ministries).
Quotas are going to come in – that is a certainty. My suspicion is (despite being long overdue) their imminent arrival has come far too fast for many ordinary party members.
To overcome this – hand-in-hand with measures now being put in place to get more women involved
- existing members (regardless of gender) need to be educated & consulted on quota implementation within parties to ensure such concerns can be addressed.
Most importantly of all…
- it’s vital that selection conventions still happen – democratically choosing the best possible candidates based on ability – cognisant of new rules that apply, including quotas.
