Dusk in the city

 

A month of Glasgow studies by Islay McLeod

 

1. A dog called Che (named after the Marxist revolutionary)

 

The boys' club in

Irish politics should

be broken up

 

Anita Toolan writes from Dublin

 

This year Ireland had the highest number of women politicians ever elected to its lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann. A record, yes, but the numbers behind the headlines told a depressing story.
     Women took just 25 (or 15%) of the 166 seats in the Dáil in February's general election – three more than the last election. And while the number of women politicians in many European countries is steadily rising, Ireland is making little progress. We have now fallen back to 80th place in the world classification – just behind Zimbabwe, Gabon and the Republic of Korea. The National Women's Council of Ireland has calculated that, at the current rate, it will take 370 years before we will see a 50:50 gender balance.
     Action is clearly needed – but what can we do? Well, we could talk about mentoring schemes, awareness-raising campaigns and sending out positive messages. They all have their merits. However, if we are serious, and really serious, about getting more women into power, and in less than 370 years, then there is only one way – through quotas.
     The government proposed legislation this year to compel political parties to have a quota of 30% women candidates in the next general election. Parties which ignore the quota, or fail to make up the numbers, will face a cut of half of their state funding.
     When the idea was first mooted, many came out against it, describing it as undemocratic, unnecessary and offensive towards women. We do, after all, live in a society where women under 35 are more likely than men to have a third-level qualification. Women make up slightly more than half of all professionals. And you don't have to look too far in local communities, workforces and universities to see the wealth of female talent that's out there. In such a context, people legitimately ask if imposing quotas is really warranted.
     Yes. There are a range of historical and structural factors which have traditionally kept women out of political office. There are barriers which disproportionately affect women in getting elected and then in performing a political role. Perhaps the most important of these barriers are cultural. Politics has traditionally been male dominated and based on family affiliation rather than social or ethical values. The boys' club atmosphere of politics makes it an unappealing place for many, both men and women, but particularly women.
     Diarmuid Ferriter, academic and political commentator, describing delegates at a national convention of one of the main parties last year wrote: 'There they stayed for the weekend, backslapping, roaring, laughing, drinking and eating (but mostly drinking), and popping over to the RDS for the occasional debate. They were having a ball, without a woman in sight, but the display of testosterone was scary to witness'.

 

     The whole organisation and structure of politics at a local level has traditionally favoured men in getting nominated and then getting elected to political office. Men are disproportionately appointed to powerful positions in the local branches of parties, such as constituency chair positions. Women, on the other hand, are appointed to positions such as constituency secretary. Aspiring politicians often build their base in sporting organisations such as the Gaelic Athletic Association and through their involvement in local business – areas strongly associated with men.
     The late hours of politics and strong association of politics with pubs can disadvantage women, particularly women who are involved in childrearing and care giving. The organisation of meetings and political sittings on weekday evenings is simply incompatible with the demands of bringing up young children.
     Quotas are an 'affirmative action' measure which compensate for some of the barriers faced by women and encourage more women to consider political life. They force parties to involve more women at all levels in their organisation and quotas ultimately force them to put more women candidates forward at elections.
     Well-designed quota systems with mandatory sanctions work. In a European context Belgium, Slovenia and Spain have all seen increases in the number of female candidates put forward for election following the compulsory introduction of quotas. Ultimately, the number of women taking up seats in parliament has also gone up. When Belgium introduced a mandatory quota system in 1995, it had 12% women members in parliament, roughly the same proportion as Ireland but, while Ireland has slipped down the world classification, Belgium recently had one of the highest proportions of women parliamentarians in the world.
     In a country where women make-up over half our population, we all lose where we do not have women in parliament. International studies and opinion polls have suggested that women and men bring different ideas, approaches and ideologies to politics. They have also shown that, once women are in power, they are more likely to prioritise issues which affect families, such as education, health, childcare and domestic violence.
     We know that we have a wealth of well-educated female talent out there in our workforces and in our voluntary and community-based organisations. Women who never considered a life in politics are being politicised and taking action around cuts and a lack of services.
     The talent is there – quotas, and only quotas, will force parties to use it.

 

Anita Toolan delivered this winning paper at the recent Young Ireland Programme organised by the Scottish Review team. She works for the the Department of Justice and Equality, Ireland.