Tag Archives: Fianna Fáil

Why I’ve changed my mind about Gender Quotas – by Ken Curtin Fianna Fáil

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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.

From Red-Heads to Nationalism – the Irish story

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By Carol Hunt, Journalist, permanent student, mother, feminist, book addict…
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Over the past few months there has been a sudden concern about the civic rights of red-heads.

That David McWilliams must be so pleased.

On Twitter, Facebook – and in various newspaper columns I’ve seen – appeals to government to introduce quotas not just for red-heads, but also, plumbers, volvo-drivers and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The point, supposedly, is to suggest that the bill on Gender Quotas, to be introduced into the Seanad this Thursday, is somehow unfair and faintly ridiculous.

The people who, for whatever reasons, are against an honest attempt at increasing the number of women in Leinster House don’t believe the majority gender in this country should be afforded a temporary discriminatory quota (although it actually applies to both genders) because that will mean “everybody will want one”.

It’s a fallacious argument.
There is absolutely no correlation between hair colour, religion etc and gender – to suggest that there is, is absurd & also a little bit desperate.

But we can be guaranteed that the nonsense will continue.

Modern Ireland…
 has always been a cold house for feminists despite our constant bragging about electing the first female MP to UK parliament.

In 1866, Corkwoman Hannah Haslam (1829-1922) signed the first women’s suffrage petition on these Islands. It was handed into the House of Commons by John Stuart Mill.

About 20 years later Hannah Haslam & her husband Thomas, founded the Irish Suffrage Society.

Helen Chevenix, Eva Gore-Booth, Aine Ceant, Helena Molony, Louie Bennett & Hannah-Sheehy Skeffington are just some of the extraordinary women who fought for suffrage & labour rights at the end of 19th & early 20th century.

Their achievements were many; sadly their names are remembered today, in the main, only by historians.

What happened?
In a word? Nationalism.
The Republican Brothers insisted the election of Constance Markievicz was living proof of the manifestation of equality as enshrined in the 1916 Proclamation.

The Sisters who’d fought long & hard before & during the War of Independence disagreed: The suffragette Irish Citizen Newspaper wrote on the day following this “historic achievement”:

“Under the new dispensation the majority sex in Ireland has secured one representative. This is the measure of our boasted sex equality.”

Should our revolutionary women have been surprised?

Perhaps not. Anna Parnell, ferociously successful leader of  Ladies Land League was cynically betrayed by her brother on his release from prison – she never spoke to him again.

And it was the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1912, led by the anti-feminist John Redmond, who used their balance of power in Westminster to defeat the Conciliation Bill (limited suffrage).

Redmond was so terrified of female power he specifically banned women from a conference on Home Rule.

Sinn Fein’s Arthur Griffith wasn’t much better. He had little time for “women’s causes”.

In 1914, those who’d decided not to support the Home Rule Bill – because the franchise for women was not included – were accused of  putting their feminist principles before their nationalist ones.

Republicans insisted Women’s Emancipation could only – should only –  be achieved after Independence. The founding of the nationalist Cumann na mBan had been seen as a retrograde step by feminists. Their fears were justified.

1917
In the 1917 Sinn Fein Convention – estimated attendance of 1,000 – only 12 women were selected as delegates.

Increasingly an agenda was created in which Suffragette women, Republican women, Socialist women, would have no voice or influence.

After Treaty Debates of 1922, a plea was made that women over 21 be given the vote – in accordance with the pledge contained in the Republican proclamation. But the boys of the “Free” State believed equality meant a 21 year old man was somehow “equal” to a 30 year old woman… They thought they were  being magnanimous.

And, contradicting the accusation made against Suffragettes in 1914 (that they were putting their feminist principles before their nationalist ones), they were denied equal rights because their motivations were Republican (anti-Treaty) rather than feminist.

Which makes one wonder who the contrary sex is?

With the establishment of the ultra-Catholic Free State, Irish men ensured women were returned to their proper sphere – the home.

Fianna Fáil
Just when your average feminist thought things couldn’t get any worse, Fianna Fail gained  power. Believe me Sisters, things can always get worse.

Eamon De Valera emulated the German mantra of  Kinder, Kuche, Kirche (children, kitchen, church) when he included a constitutional article which maintained that a woman’s legal place was within the home.
[In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, women gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved. The State shall, therefore, endeavor to ensure that mothers shall  not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home. Article 41.2.]

(Historian Margaret Ward has commented that Dev’s comments were indistinguishable from Nazi decrees.)

The majority of exhausted double-jobbing mothers I know are either howling with laughter or annoyance at the above constitutional piece of nonsense.

Interestingly, no-one has actually challenged it in court (many families today need two incomes to pay the bills). Could all those mortgages given to two-income families be unconstitutional?

Any takers?

The Gender Quotas Bill
It seeems likely the Gender Quotas Bill will be passed – if all the parties supporting it are to be believed (never a given).
And Fianna Fail’s suggestion that it be extended to the 2014 Local Elections should be taken up (before they get back into power & change their minds).

We need to take this chance
… for greater equality in political representaion and run with it. It may not come again. We have to support our female candidates –  and all candidates who support what are condescendingly called “women’s issues”.

As UCD historian Rosemary Cullen-Owens said of the aims of our early Suffragettes:
“… That it took fifty years for such demands to be voiced again by Irishwomen is perhaps a lesson to be noted by their successors.”

Indeed.

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We are delighted to welcome Carol Hunt as author here.  Carol recently wrote a great piece for Irish Independent after the How to Elect More Women Conference – here’s the link