In recent times much has been documented about the lack of women in Irish politics. I don’t plan to reiterate in this article the many depressing statistics around female involvement or the pro and anti arguments that circulate around gender quotas. Rather I’d just like to share with you, why I think it’s important to vote for women in this election. When I say ‘vote for women’ I mean if you have a choice of a male and female candidate that aligns with your belief system in your constituency, consider giving your first preference to the female candidate. I’m not advocating that you should vote for women regardless of how their beliefs map onto yours. Anyway, here are my three reasons for voting women:
Transformation
Many are calling this the election of a generation and that it will change our political landscape significantly. Electing 83 women on Friday is the single most effective way to achieve a transformation of our current status quo. It is the only way, I believe, to radically change the current system. Realistically though, it will probably be Fine Gael that hold the balance of power on Saturday. Given that that party’s entire front bench during the election have been male, I feel that is indicative that it will be business as usual – male and stale. I don’t want that in my next parliament and so I’m voting for women.
Balance
It is not about putting women above men, it is about having men and women together in the same room making decisions. Balance is everything and I firmly believe that when we have a better balance we will have a better quality of parliament. Men and women do not live separately in our society, and the massive imbalance in the Oireachtas has led to policies which clearly affect one gender more than another because our voice is being lost at that level. This has proven to be detrimental in our country and we need something new. We need balance and so I’m voting for women.
Skill-set
This is linked to balance and transformation. Women have a different skill-set to men. I also understand that individuals within each gender have different skill-sets, but when you look at what we value most in our women: Most of our nurses are women, so we value something in women around caring and looking after someone who is ill. Most of our teachers are women, so we value something in women around educating and influencing young minds. We also value our women in the home to manage often scarce, resources and still provide a decent standard of living for their families. Well I don’t have to tell you that our country is sick and needs someone to look after it. Our country has huge levels of illiteracy and needs someone to teach it. Our country desperately needs someone to balance the scarce resources with a decent standard of living. So with that in mind I’m voting for women, because they will bring a skill-set to the Dáil which we have never had in there in a critical mass.
I don’t need to tell you that our system is broken. On Friday, we have the opportunity to fix it. Don’t vote for the same old system. Vote for transformation, vote for balance and vote for a better system. Vote for women.
Linda Kelly is a co-founder and organiser of Cork Feminista.
