Tag Archives: politics

5050 Group calls for family friendly politics and quotas for local elections

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In the elections of 1918 Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, a leading feminist suffragette,  wanted to be selected as a candidate. However, she was only offered a seat she had no chance of winning so rejected it. Over 90 years later similar concerns were being discussed at a women and politics seminar in Sligo.

Following the seminar the 5050 Group will be asking candidates in the forthcoming general election to support family friendly politics and the implementation of quotas for local elections.

The seminar, ‘1916-2016 Equality for Women 100 years on’, was held at the Institute of Technology, Sligo and was organised by 5050 North West, an advocacy group campaigning for equal representation in Irish politics.

Sligo Cllrs. Sinead Maguire and Marie Casserly, Leitrim Cllrs. Finola Armstrong McGuire and Sinead Guckian, and Donegal Cllr. Niamh Kennedy Sligo Cllrs. Sinead Maguire and Marie Casserly, Leitrim Cllrs. Finola Armstrong McGuire and Sinead Guckian, and Donegal Cllr. Niamh Kennedy participated in a panel discussion.

Cllr.Sinead Guckian expressed her disappointment at not getting selected at Fianna Fáil’s recent selection convention. She was critical that ‘there was no sign of the party’s ‘Markievicz Commission report’ which made recommendations on increasing female participation.

Councillors Sinead Maguire and Finola Armstrong McGuire spoke of the training provided by Fine Gael for women. Fianna Fáil held a boot camp for election candidates.  All councillors commended the 5050 Group for their support and particularly the media training provided by Ocean FM.

While not all liking the idea of gender quotas, councillors acknowledged they are necessary to get more women on the ticket, emphasising they were a ‘temporary’ measure until the playing field is level.

Nóirin Clancy, 5050 ChairpersonNóirin Clancy, 5050 Chairperson, emphasised the need for quotas for local elections not just general elections, stating ‘since most politicians start out as councillors they are more likely to stand for the Dáil; until we see more women councillors we won’t see more women in the Dáil’.

Incumbency is regarded as a key barrier as one councillor stated ‘how do you get past the men who’ve been sitting TDs for the past 20 years?’

Reference was made to the 1999 ‘scrappage scheme’ which offered financial incentives to councillors to step down in order to bring new blood to local politics.  Having a retirement age or limiting the terms of office was also muted.

The kernel of the problem, highlighted by speakers, is the reluctance of many male politicians to step down and to share power. A sense of ‘entitlement to the seat’ is prevalent.

Councillors agreed that politics needs to become more family friendly for both women and men. For rural TDs the long hours means much time away from family; female TDs don’t even get maternity leave.

Dr. John Pender, Lecturer in politics, IT SligoDr. John Pender, Lecturer in politics, IT Sligo, highlighted that the Dáil has always been at least 85% male. The 2014 local elections resulted in a small increase in women’s representation going from 17% (2009) to 20.5%.

John referred to interesting developments in Sweden and Norway where a women’s political party, ‘Feminist Initiative’, is gaining momentum. Disillusioned that mainstream parties were not taking gender equality seriously women set up their own party and their first MEP, a Roma named Soraya Post, was elected in 2014.

Claire McGing, 5050 Group member and Maynooth University lecturer, spoke of how few female political role models have emerged in the North West region. Claire said ‘Fine Gael’s Mary Reynolds was the first woman TD elected from the North West, representing Sligo-Leitrim from 1932 and 1961. She also holds the record for the woman winning most Dáil elections’. The constituency has seen only one female TD since then – Marian Harkin (2002-2007) who has been an MEP since 2004.

Claire McGing, 5050 Group member and Maynooth University lecturerDrawing on international best practice, Claire recommended that parties adopt gender quotas for local elections, co-opt women councillors when local vacancies arise, and make the Oireachtas more ‘family friendly’ by normalising the working hours, formalising maternity leave, and considering other arrangements such as proxy voting and teleconferencing.

The seminar was reminded of campaigns for equality in the last century.  Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, grand-daughter of Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, spoke about the influence of her grandmother. Coming from ‘a long line of troublemakers’ and continuing the family tradition, Micheline discussed the gender equality case she won against NUI Galway for failure to promote her to senior lecturer.

Highlights from the seminar

ENDS

For further information contact:

Claire McGing, 5050 Group/Maynooth University 086-3342812

Nóirín Clancy, 5050 Group Chairperson 087 2747770;

www.facebook.com/The5050Group     5050-group.com/blog

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.