Tag Archives: Irish constitution

6-Step action plan to promote gender equality in elected office

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Have you ever wanted someone to paint the outline of a journey you were on? Sketch the direction – give you a map… ?  Offer you a route?

Pippa Norris & Mona Lena Krook have written a great roadmap.  It’s very helpful for thinking about changes we need in Ireland – if we are to achieve 50:50 by the year 2020…

They suggest a 6-step Action Plan:

Step 1 : Constitutional rights
Guarantee equal rights for women & men, including rights to voting suffrage & candidate nomination.

(Have we fully achieved this? I think the Irish Constitution does this…)

Step 2 : Electoral system
Reform the type of electoral system; PR with large district magnitudes maximizes opportunities for women.

(Big constituencies are better for gender equality – 4 & 5-seaters much better than 3-seaters?)

Step 3 : Capacity development
Strengthen skills & resources of women in pipeline for elected office, with initiatives by parties, media & NGOs, including knowledge networks, mentoring programs, skills training & funding for women candidates.

(Training & mentoring : this is where Women for Election are so important. General Secretaries of political parties too. For media, Women on Air will provide media skills training, publicity & networking opportunities for women – all needed for gender equality.  There may be other valuable resources? What’s being done to fund the development of women candidates?)

Step 4 : Parliamentary reform
Reform rules & internal procedures within parliament, including facilities & working conditions, hours of sitting, principles for leadership recruitment & provision of childcare facilities.

(Oh dear, oh dear… Who invented the rules & procedures of the Oireachtas? The facilities & working conditions etc…?  Certainly our current situation was not designed with gender equality in mind.  There is a mountain of work to do? And maybe a wealth of conversations, debates & arguments to be had?)

Step 5 : Party rules & recruitment procedures
Review internal candidate recruitment processes within each party; adopt fast track strategies in party rulebooks & regulations to achieve gender equality for nominated candidates.

(Political parties have already reviewed their processes. Some are close to conclusions – but the situation is so dominated by men, & change so slow, that gender quotas are now “the only show in town”.
It will be tough for some men who hoped to be selected.  Tough. Hopefully, many decent political men will be persuaded to promote gender equality in practice. Certainly this is the time for many changes within political parties?)

Step 6 : Legal quotas
Review laws regulating candidate recruitment processes for all parties; use of reserved seats for women members, or gender quotas for candidates, generally expand women’s representation

(The Gender Quota Bill will be introduced in the Seanad on Thursday 2 February – in 8 days. Given huge cross-party support for the Bill, we will soon have candidate gender quotas in national elections.
But will the Bill be amended?  Will quotas be extended for the 2014 local elections? It would make a huge difference if there were gender quotas for selecting candidates in local elections. Legally-required of political parties or voluntarily-entered-into by parties?

But quotas are only one of the changes that matter. Quotas alone will not lead to gender equality in elected office. We need change on many fronts?  We need politicians, pressure groups & support groups making alliances for change?
We need to expect & welcome challengers who do their best to defend the status quo. We’ve heard from Michael McDowell & Joanna Tuffy TD, for example. They’ve clarified their opposition gender quotas. In their own way, they may help us promote gender equality?)   

It was a tweet from Claire McGing (member of 50:50 Group, @claire_mcging) on 24 January that alerted me to this 6-step Action Plan.  Ms Ajla Van Heel, Gender Officer OSCE ODIHR presented it  to “How to Elect More Women” Conference on 20 January.

[Pippa Norris & Mona Lena Krook, [Harvard University & Washington University in St Louis, USA] were commissioned by OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions & Human Rights (ODIHR).

Their full report is the “Baseline study for the OSCE/ODIHR Handbook on Measures to Promote Women’s Participation in Political Parties.”

Ivana Bacik’s reply to McDowell’s letter in the Sunday Independent

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Sir —
Surprise, surprise. Former PD leader Michael McDowell believes that a proposed gender quota law is unconstitutional.

As one of the very few elected women politicians in Ireland, I read his article (Sunday Independent, November 20, 2011), with interest. As always, he argues his ideological position with energy — but without substance.

He suggests that Eamon Gilmore has promised to publish a bill designed to encourage political parties to nominate women candidates. In fact, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has, in line with commitments in the Programme for Government, already published the heads of a bill the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011, which will make particular funding levels for political parties contingent on the party achieving a certain minimum percentage (30%) of candidates of each gender in the next General Election.

This is an entirely modest and reasonable proposal, similar to legislation introduced in over 100 countries internationally. Experience has shown that without some sort of temporary positive action measure like this, the level of women’s representation in politics will not improve.

Ireland is no exception. The Dail has always been at least 85% male — we rank at 79th place in the international listings of women’s parliamentary representation, well below the EU average.

We have never improved that position — in fact our ranking has fallen nearly 40 places since 1990. Clearly, some positive steps need to be taken to address the unrepresentative nature of our parliament.

In 2009, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice adopted a report I had written which found that this sort of law is one vital measure to ensure greater choice for voters and ultimately greater equality of representation.

Michael McDowell fails to cite any substantive constitutional ground on which this law could be challenged, suggesting only that it might breach the freedom of association. However, this right is very restrictively framed in the Constitution, which specifies that laws may be enacted for the regulation and control in the public interest of its exercise. In other words, even if the legislation were to be challenged, a very strong defence of its adoption in the public interest could be made, based on the facts.

Further, as Mr McDowell himself acknowledges, there is no reference to the ‘political party’ as an institution in the Constitution.

Accordingly it is impossible to argue, as he does, that any political party has any right to any particular level of State funding. The principles governing levels of State funding of political parties have been set down by the legislature in a series of different Acts.

Finally, it is well accepted that this measure is very modest and does not provide for any outcome. It is only an ‘opportunity’ quota. It does not impose in any way on the choice of voters; it expands the choice available to voters who in several constituencies in past elections had no opportunity to support a woman candidate.
This modest proposal deserves support from women and men alike, and I very much look forward to a full and constructive debate on the legislation when it comes before us in the Seanad.
Ivana Bacik,
Seanad Eireann, Dublin 2