Article contributed by Keirra Cairns, a Leaving Cert student at Loreto Community School in Milford.
Keirra is studying Politics and Society and as part of this subject, she must partake in a Citizenship Project.
For her project she decided to focus on researching whether the status of women in Ireland reflects the status of democracy in the country today.
Keirra has also been tasked to present her findings, which you can read below.
She said: “In my report I will provide both qualitative and quantitative data to prove that the female status in Ireland is most definitely not equal to males in different areas of life including in education, the working world and specifically politics. I will give my opinion on what I believe we can do to prevent and change this bleak picture.”
Democracy in Ireland, does this affect the female status in our country?
Politics in Ireland
As of 2023, of the 160 TDs in Dail Eireann, just 36 are female and 124 are male meaning just 23% of Deputies in the Dáil are women. Furthermore, at Executive level only 4 out of a total of the 15 Cabinet Ministers are female. In Donegal female representation is worryingly low. Donegal is one of only two constituencies in the country that has no female TDs. Ireland has yet to see a woman hold the more powerful Cabinet positions of Minister for Finance or Minister for Foreign Affairs let alone Taoiseach.
Many women are interested and involved in politics but may not have the confidence to run for office, and, crucially, may not feel that the support is there for them, be that childcare, working hours or access to female mentors.
According to recently ex-Social Democrat TD Roisin Shortall “the move to equal political representation has been painfully slow”.
By the time Dail Eireann celebrated 100 years in 2019 just 114 women had been elected as TD’S. In the same period, around 1190 males had taken a seat in the national parliament. Ireland is currently ranked 100th of 187 places when it comes to female representation in parliament; sitting uncomfortably alongside many patriarchal Developing Third World Countries. In 2012, the Irish Parliament adopted a law obliging political parties to ensure that at least 30% of their candidates are female in order to keep State funding for contesting General Elections. The threshold rises to 40% from 2023 onwards. If the quota is not met, political parties will lose 50% of the State funding they receive on an annual basis to run their operations.
Although Gender quotas are not a perfect solution they have definitely increased the number of women in the Dail. People who disagree with the gender quota believe that political parties should recruit based on merit not based on gender however, Prof Rainbow Murray of Queen Mary University London argues that this is a myth, a myth used to justify the privilege-based male status quo.
There is no denying that small progress is being made but it’s not enough as females are still not being respected and equally represented in politics and I believe we can do so much more to encourage women to run in politics and make them feel comfortable in doing so like, ensuring that women are regularly informed of their rights and use the support of progressive traditional authorities whose words can help change the perception of the role of women in society. Women should be made to feel comfortable and welcome in politics especially by those in power, break the taboo by giving airtime, by broadcasting reports, to women with prominent roles in society (elected officials, representatives of associations, entrepreneurs). Provide information on their careers and their actions. It is not a case of applauding them as “women” but as citizens making a positive difference, which could encourage others to follow suit. The State must ensure equal access to information by disseminating practical and concrete information on becoming a candidate, voting and other procedures. Indeed, many women tempted to enter politics do not know how to go about it. Early education programmes need to be targeted at young females that provide information on promising initiatives and sources of assistance for those interested in pursuing a career in politics but lacking the confidence and knowledge how to go about it. Some African States have put in place progressive incentives to address this thorny issue such as additional subsidies for parties who meet a quota of women candidates standing for election, and more importantly free support and training programmes for women who wish to enter politics.
Why is it important to have women in politics?
• Symbolic effects – women politicians act as role models for aspiring women candidates; “You cannot be what you cannot see”!
• It seriously undermines Democracy when 50 percent of the population is so badly underrepresented.
• Women’s interests and female issues are inadequately addressed in a political system dominated by men.
• Women’s political representation revitalises democracy, with some studies pointing to increased levels of efficacy and interest in politics among women voters when they see women candidates in the race.
Do women and men emphasise different policy issues?
There are 3 trends to note:
• Women & men politicians do not hold significantly different policy priorities overall. All prioritise economic, finance & social issues.
• However, women emphasise the importance of social issues more often than men.
• Women politicians are more likely to allocate a higher importance to ‘women’s issues’ than male politicians.
• Women politicians take more parliamentary initiative than men on women’s issues in general.
Underrepresentation of females working in Ireland
According to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform publishes Gender Pay Gap Report 2022, in which they analysed payroll metrics from 25 June 2021 up to 24 June 2022. The mean gender pay gap indicates that, on average, men are paid 5.71% higher than women in Ireland. Why is this when a man and a woman are within the same careers doing the same jobs?
Research on institutions reveals that institutions become gendered partly due to “associations between gender and an organisation’s function” (for example, the army is commonly associated with masculinity, while daycare is commonly associated with femininity), and partly due to the “socio-demographics” of those “who founded, populated and developed them over time” (for example, the fire brigade is considered a masculinized profession/institution because it is mostly men who occupy this profession; nursing is considered a feminised profession as it is mostly women who occupy this profession).
The Educational Attainment Thematic Report for 2022 highlights geographical disparities with 62 per cent of those aged between 25 and 64 in Dublin having a third level qualification compared to 46 per cent in the Midlands.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), women across all age groupings from 25 to 64 years had higher levels of third level attainment than men. In 2021, of adults age 25 and older who had completed a bachelor’s degree or more, 53.1% were women and 46.9% were men.but somehow the employment rate for males aged 15-64 years was 77.2% compared to 68.6% for females. These statistics prove that although more women may have a higher level of education, males have a higher rate of employment.
Research by headhunters Heidrick & Struggles showed 14% of publicly-listed Irish companies had female CEOs
In the Republic women hold 46 percent of entry level roles and 42 percent of managerial roles but this drops steeply to less then one quarter or 24 per cent of top executive positions, according to a report by the Irish Times.
Gender discrimination in Irish schools
Majority of secondary schools in Ireland portray gender roles in many of the subjects they offer and from a very young age children. Most all-girls schools in Ireland don’t offer or encourage practical subjects like woodwork or metalwork and only 13% of all-boys schools in Ireland promote subjects like home economics as part of their curriculum.
As children we are brought up to believe that men should go on to take on more practical, physical work like construction and young females are urged to go into more caring and jobs like nursing. This is undeniable, young girls are handed baby dolls whilst growing up and young boys are told to play outside and given toy tools and cars. This starts from the first early years of schooling and when it is all we are taught how are we meant to know any better.
They say that “Blatant, intentional discrimination against women is far from being something merely to be read about in history books”. But how can this be claimed when the facts prove otherwise; the problem of gender bias, stereotyping and female underrepresentation in the most powerful organs of this state is a real living and ongoing problem. This country and its people have proven in recent years how we can affect positive change when we put our minds to it; it is time to finish the job of full gender equality now once and got all.
