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Women and Politics – Cork Branch Meeting – Guest post by Fiona Collins

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 Dr. Margaret O’Keeffe of the Cork Branch of the 50:50 Group highlighted a point at last Monday’s meeting that surprised me. There were 12 Constituencies out of the total of 43  in the last general election that did not have any women on the Ballot Paper. This is a surprising statistic.

 Ciaran Lynch TD is adamant that the Equality Bill is not a gender issue but is a societal one. It is, he says, something that reflects Irish Society as a whole. It does reflect Irish Society but in a very poor light. How come many parties felt that they did not have a female candidate strong enough to represent them on the ballot paper? 

Deputy Billy Kelleher suggested that the traditional party selection process was based on being part of “the club”, that women were not part of and this prohibits women from being selected. 

Deputy Jerry Buttimer suggested three possible barriers to having women in government:

  1. Self Selection Stage – women tend not to put themselves forward.
  2. Party Selection – gatekeepers in the party that choose the candidates
  3. Voting Stage – ensuring that voters do not discriminate

 All parties present on the night welcomed the Equality Bill and rightly so. Quotas work and this has been proven in the many countries that have them. We need them to work in Ireland as well. There are less women currently sitting in the present government than there was in the last one.

 The Equality Bill is needed to get women through the party selection process and onto the ballot paper. It is not about reserved seats or allocated seats. It is purely about giving voters a fair and equitable ballot paper that reflects the society and community that they live in.

 It is about getting parties to follow through on their great aspirations of having more women on the ballot paper. Hopefully this will lead to seats in the Dail for women if the voters see fit.

 Fiona Buckley, UCC, pointed out at the meeting that there are over 2000 groups in Ireland, which are being led by women. It is now time for these women to move from the politics of “the small ‘p’ to Politics of ‘ the big ‘P’. 

I believe the Equality Bill will help to achieve this.