DUBLIN — Feminism is the force of the moment in Irish politics. So where are all the women?
The repeal of a strict abortion ban by overwhelming popular mandate last year was a major leap forward for women’s rights in the country — and largely driven by women-led grassroots activists. Yet women are severely under-represented in public office. Just a fifth of national lawmakers and local councilors are women.
That’s why some activists have fixed their sights on May European and local elections. By recruiting and coaching a new roster of female candidates, they hope to leverage grassroots activism into concrete representation by Irish women.
“Certainly, from what we’re seeing, we’re at a huge turning point,” said Ciairín de Buis, CEO of Women for Election, a non-profit organization that runs how-to bootcamps on campaigning. “What’s very telling is that there’s a lot of women coming to sessions who are new to political life.”
There has never been a woman leader of either of the biggest parties.
The landmark referendums of 2018 and 2015 — to legalize abortion and gay marriage respectively — are cited by de Buis and others as game changers in Irish politics. The plebiscites served as a crash-course in campaigning for many women, galvanizing thousands to take part in canvassing and voter registration efforts.
“They haven’t been involved in a particular political party for years,” de Buis said of the women coming forward as potential candidates. “They are fresh to politics, having been engaged by a referendum campaign, and now they want to continue some level of involvement.”
Vocal pressure from female activists has put issues that affect women — from a scandal over a cervical cancer screening program to street protests about consent in response to a divisive rape trial in Belfast — on the political center stage.
The next test: whether female activists can translate their surge of support into votes at the ballot box.
Long road
Women played a prominent role in the initial creation of the Irish state — the country’s first legislature in 1919 had a woman minister, Constance Markievicz — but women were marginalized in the following decades. The second woman minister took office only in 1979.
Irish politician and nationalist, Constance Markiewicz | Walshe/Topical Press Agency via Getty Images
There has never been a woman leader of either of the biggest parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Nor has Ireland had a woman prime minister, or a woman minister of finance, foreign affairs or defense.
Martina Fitzgerald, former political correspondent with national broadcaster RTÉ, interviewed all surviving 17 of the 19 women who have served as Irish ministers and two former presidents for her book “Madam Politician.”
She found that “the unrelenting focus on appearance, various levels of sexism, and also the tug of war of balancing a career and also family life” are the most frequently-cited barriers to life in politics.
Of the seven female lawmakers who sat in parliament from the 1930s to the 1950s, five were widows of deceased parliamentarians — a route into politics that was known as the “widow’s mandate.” In the last three years, this culture has begun to disappear.
“Since 2016, the vast majority, the overwhelming majority [of women lawmakers] have no connection to a former office-holder,” Fitzgerald said.
Prior to Ireland’s general election that year, just 16 percent of lawmakers were women. That vote marked the first in which gender quotas came into force, compelling parties to nominate women as 30 percent of general election candidates or face cuts to state funding — a measure that is credited with helping to raise the number of women lawmakers by 8 points.
One in five deputies in the Irish lower house is female, a record high for Ireland.
For women, the barriers to entering politics are high — and not always visible
“We still have a lot of work to do, but we’re getting there,” Mary McAuliffe, assistant professor in gender studies at University College Dublin, said at FemFest, a February conference organized by the National Women’s Council of Ireland for women and girls aged 16 to 25. “Transformation of culture is always much more difficult than actually changing the laws.”
Since 2012, Women for Election has trained hundreds of women a year, and its efforts appear to be paying off. Half of the female local councillors elected in a 2014 ballot, and 40 percent of lawmakers elected in a 2016 vote, were trained by the activist group.
Among them are women now reaching senior positions across the spectrum of Irish politics: Josepha Madigan, a Fine Gael lawmaker appointed culture minister in 2017; Lisa Chambers, Brexit spokesperson for the rival Fianna Fáil party; and Liadh Ní Riada, who was the Sinn Féin candidate for president last year.
Rosarii Griffin attended Women for Election training after a friend urged her to consider politics. She is now running for local elections in Cork, in the southeast of the country.
“When it comes to political priorities, women and children are always at the bottom,” Griffin told POLITICO. “If women aren’t elected we’re never going to have a place at the table.”
Trailblazers
Ireland’s female activists have also made diversity a priority.
The local elections of May 24, for example, are likely to see a number of trailblazers. Among the women running for seats on councils are Malawian asylum seeker Ellie Kisyombe, who has lived in Ireland’s controversial “Direct Provision” refugee processing system for eight years.
Another is Julia O’Reilly, an Irish Traveller whose political ambitions were given urgency when discrimination against the ethnic minority became a theme in Ireland’s 2018 presidential election.
“I always had the interest to do it, but that was the push that I needed,” O’Reilly told POLITICO. “I know what it is to need and want, and that’s what’s lacking in politics right now.”
Hazel Chu is not fazed at being a “first.” The child of migrants from Hong Kong, Chu was the first in her family to complete high school and university and the first Irish-Chinese person to qualify as a barrister. If elected, she will become the first Irish-Chinese woman to hold political office in Ireland.
“I thought at 17 by the time I was 25 the world would be equal …” — Mairead McGuinness
“There is an inherent barrier there. There’s a barrier for women, there’s a barrier for migrants … having to juggle different positions between home life and work life, having the know-how as well of running,” Chu told POLITICO.
She cited the campaigns to legalize gay marriage and abortion as having helped draw her into politics.
“I ended up building that know-how myself by running a campaign and getting involved, and also getting involved with campaigns like the marriage referendum and repeal,” Chu said.
MEP and European Parliament Vice President Mairead McGuinness told POLITICO she noticed women often declining to appear in group photographs, and encouraged them to do so, stressing the importance of visibility.
“We need a mix of age and gender and all sorts of people with different backgrounds to get involved in politics,” said McGuiness. She is considering a second run for European Parliament president, following a failed run in 2016, noting nearly two decades have passed since a woman last held the position.
European Parliament Vice President Mairead McGuinness | European Parliament
Not all women of influence are deciding to run, however. Vicky Phelan, who was propelled into public life when her investigation into a missed cancer diagnosis revealed a nationwide scandal over a cervical screening program, has been repeatedly asked to become a candidate, including for president. Phelan has declined, citing the need to spend time with and provide stability for her children.
“I certainly would never have seen myself as a leader, but what I’m doing obviously is leadership to a certain extent because I’m effecting change within the health system,” she told POLITICO.
“I have proven that one person can make a different in this country,” she added. “I had never been involved in any activism. I think some people assume that in order to do this you have to have debated at college or have been involved in a political party. Look, I’ve done none of that, and I’m still able to do it.”
For women, the barriers to entering politics are high — and not always visible, said McGuiness, who added that in addition to problems within the political system, women are often not as confident “as we need to be.”
“I thought at 17 by the time I was 25 the world would be equal. It’s not,” said McGuinness.
Naomi O’Leary is a journalist who hosts “The Irish Passport” Podcast. Cristina Gonzalez and Eline Schaart contributed reporting.