"Since 1918 women have held just under 5.5% of all Dáil seats, ever."
by Jean Anne Sutton, Contributor
In 1990, Mary Robinson became the first female President of Ireland, a watershed moment in the history of mná na hÉireann. Yet, in a graspable alternative reality, she was usurped this honour fifteen years earlier by one Rita Dudley, widow of the fourth president, Erskine Hamilton Childers. In 1974, after Childers’ sudden death in office, the political parties in Leinster House considered nominating Ms. Dudley as an tUachartán. But, after a series of petty disagreements, the plan fell through. The consensus remains that Dudley would have made a fine President had intemperate politics not intruded. She was accustomed to the robes of office, having previously enjoyed a career in diplomacy. “A very capable appointment, but hardly cataclysmic” – her destined, doubtless epitaph that never was.
As the first female head of state to be elected Robinson differentiated her presidency from what the powers-that-were would have dictated. Her position was imbued with a symbolism Dudley’s would have lacked and in her victory speech announced, “I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.”
Unpretentious and memorable oratory from arguably our finest president. But was she premature in pronouncing Irish women as firebrands ever-ready to topple sacred cows? She, and the cheering crowd, may have reasonably thought us on the precipice of an equalizing social revolution. Rapid change was afoot. We were repealing illegitimacy laws and on our way to divorce legalisation. However, her assured proclamation has gifted us mná, over half of the population, with a hell of a mantle. We’re all too aware that we’ve been taking our time catching up with Mary.
The following statistics, provided by the 50:50 Group, reveal the stark reality for women in representative Irish politics: 25 of 166 Dáil seats are currently held by women, just over 15%. Since 1918 women have held just under 5.5% of all Dáil seats, ever. This amounts to just 91 women in the State’s history ever being TDs. 91 out of millions of citizens. With such disappointing figures we are falling behind the world (79 out 137 countries according to the IPU), the EU (22 out of 27 member states), and even ourselves – the last General Election was the poorest showing of female candidates since 1989. Irish women have reached an impasse in the political sphere. The time to acknowledge this and act is nigh.
Over one hundred countries operate electoral gender quotas. Ireland is set to join the club. The Electoral Amendment (Political Funding) Bill 2011 is being debated at the moment in the Seanad and has a strong chance of passing through the Oireachtas in the coming weeks. At the moment the legislation requires that women must comprise at least 30% of a party’s electoral candidates for the Dáil. A number of Senators have suggested pushing this to 40% and extending it to Seanad and local elections. Failure to meet this quota will result in the State cutting party funding by half.
Joanna Tuffy: for a better quality of life... and total capitulation to an Irish political system that has elected 94.5% men to 31 Dáils in the last hundred years.
I generally believe these proposed quotas to be A Good Thing and was disappointed by the carry-on of Joanna Tuffy TD. She is stridently opposed to the legislation, and it seems, to conversations about the challenges facing women in politics. Last November she publicly slammed a female-deputies-only meeting organised by Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD, which sought to discuss these issues. Ms. Tuffy informed the 85% male contingent of the house she would not be attending because a women-only meeting was discriminatory. She has since continued her vocal crusade against the great democratic threat in the press and at public meetings. I was reminded of Jane Austen’s disappointed reprimand in her novel Emma: Mr. Knightley to the eponymous heroine after she humiliates an acquaintance: “badly done, Emma.” Badly done, Joanna. The problem with the Flat Earth approach, fighting for gender equality by treating sexes equally from this moment onwards, is that it ignores the inequality that exists and the history behind it. Affirmative action is acting towards gender equality – Joanna Tuffy is pretending it into existence. One may not effusively like quotas but to fervently disagree with them, given the disparity between the number of men and women in frontline politics, offers nothing productive to the goal of equality. Irish women need a rallying cause to get behind and quotas are a line towards that harmony.
I do worry, however, about quotas becoming a subterfuge for real issues. Are we settling on an attainable cause, as opposed to pursuing a more difficult one? Will the proposed quotas lead to real equality – or just better balanced photo-ops? To counter such fears I suggest complementary therapies: canvassing groups. Take EMILY’s List, a successful US group which aims to elect pro-choice Democrat women, as a prototype. The Irish advocacy groups emerging at the moment are non-partisan. The 50:50 Group aims to achieve equal representation and Women for Election seeks to mentor women through the political process. Great organisations – but we will need issues-based bravery, and some clear lists, if we truly want to rock the system.
If we see politics as a reflection of society – there is a valid case for gender quotas as medicine that deals with the symptom rather than the illness. Certainly underlying social issues need to be the focus of political action as well. Childcare may be a good place to start. In tackling childcare we can perhaps shift consciousness about gender equality in a more meaningful manner than quotas. Paid paternity leave is an option, but can it last five years? To encourage possible politicians worried about familial commitments we need a substantial, subsidized and suitable childcare system. Some people look to the Swedish model which offers childcare at eighteen months or at the home-care option in Finland. Broadening childcare choice is an alternative route to gender parity that we should collectively act upon.
Ultimately, I want feminists elected – not necessarily women. Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State for Equality, calls Prionsias de Rossa the biggest feminist she knows. Joanna Tuffy clearly isn’t. We need to start helping the men and women who care about gender equality with more than a supportive tweet. Get out there. Pick a candidate, or pick a cause. Go out and find a Mary. Or even your own personal Prionsias. Don’t just sit there and wait for someone to bestow you with a Rita.
Jean Anne is co-Editor-in-Chief of Trinity women’s magazine Siren, which will be launched on March 6th for International Women’s Day on March 8th.
