“How To Elect More Women” Conference in Dublin Castle

Kathleen Lynch, Minister for Disability, Equality, Mental Health & Older People,  together with the Irish Government Department of Justice & Equality are collaborating with …

Support from European Social Fund, they are organising a major public Conference on Friday 20 January 2012 – in Dublin Castle starting at 09:00 with tea and coffee and closing @ 1615.

Pre-register (essential) @ politicsconference@justice.ie

What a line-up!

Facilitator :  Olivia O’Leary
Opening Address:
Alan Shatter, Minister for Justice, Equality & Defence
International Speakers:
Ms Ajla Van Heel, Poland, Ms Nan Sloane UK

Irish Speakers: [in draft programme order]
Mary White, former Minister for Equality; Claire McGing, NUI Maynooth; Senator Ivana Bacik; Susan McKay, CEO National Women’s Council of Ireland; Minister Kathleen Lynch; Deputy Catherine Byrne, Fine Gael; Deputy Sandra McLellan, Sinn Féin; Deputy Catherine Murphy, Independent; Senator Averil Power, Fianna Fáil; Councillor Jane Dillon Byrne, Labour; Tom Curran, General Secretary, Fine Gael; Ms Ita McAuliffe, General Secretary, Labour Party; Seán Dorgan, General Secretary, Fianna Fáil; Ms Ailbhe Smyth, ‘People Before Profit Alliance’.

Also, there will be a Leaders’ Round Table with
Taoiseach & Leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny
Tánaiste & Leader of Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore
Leader of Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin
Leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan

Final Words:  Minister Kathleen Lynch

There will be an Open Discussion after each speaking session.

About this Conference:
… This Conference is an opportunity for an open dialogue with international & national experts including academics, politicians, political activists, party administrators & Party leaders, about the steps that need to be taken to ensure that women are more equally represented in Irish political life in the future.” [extract from Draft Conference Programme]

Who may attend the Conference?
The Conference is open to all but is likely to be of greatest interest to 

  • women who might already be actively involved in community, business, public or political life;
  • women who are curious about how political life works in Ireland;
  • anyone involved in political life in Ireland;
  • anyone interested in advancing the role of women in all aspects of Irish life.” [draft Conference Programme]
More information & Queries:
Phone +353 1 4790263/4790293 Gender Equality Division, Department of Justice & Equality  
The 50:50 Group welcomes
this important Conference & will be attending.  One of the speakers, Claire McGing is a member of 50:50 Dublin.  She’ll speak on “Why do we need more women in politics & how do we get there.

 

 

Nicola Byrne, CEO 11890, speaks her mind…

Discussing a recent ESRI report on NewstalkFM radio on 13 December, Nicola Byrne, founder & CEO of 11890 had this exchange with Jonathan Healy

Jonathan: … Funny you mention politics, because that’s the one area where there has been absolutely no change. We seem to have had very few new female politicians coming through. There have been some, and some of them have gone on, but, if you look at the Cabinet, it’s mostly an “old boys” affair.

Nicola: Well we have seen a lot of changes.  I know we have only 14% women I think currently in the Dail, and I have one or two of them as friends, but the difficulty there is that the system in the Dail hasn’t changed. We haven’t had enough power & influence, and it’s been left deliberately that way, that it isn’t family-friendly.

The Dail goes on until 10 o’clock at night sometimes. If you’re a young mother, you can’t participate. We’ve lost one or two TDs to the fact that two working TDs when they got married, she had to cut her job because she just couldn’t put the hours in. So we haven’t built the system for equality.  We’ve actually just built the system to suit whoever was in power at the time.  ‘He who has the power is the king-maker’.  And so the Dail has remained a traditional male bastion for that reason.  It’s not some great mystery why it hasn’t happened.  The boys just suited themselves, and nobody stopped them.

Jonathan (laughing): I think they do that across the board in relation to gender issues…