Madam, – As a person who ardently supports the concept of chivalry towards women, I believe there are plenty of cultural and legal arenas in society where women should be granted preferential treatment over men. But the political arena is not one of them.
If gender quotas were introduced for TDs, Dáil Éireann would be fractured into a two-tiered chamber, composed firstly of male TDs who would appear to hold onto their seats exclusively as a result of their aptitude, and secondly women TDs who would appear to hold onto their seats for no other reason than the fact that they are women.
There is not a hippy’s chance in Texas that gender quotas would enhance women’s rights. Such quotas would serve only to denigrate the professional honour of women TDs by tethering them permanently to the stigma of preferential and pampered treatment.
Madam, – Research has shown that women’s concerns and issues will not be addressed in parliament unless there is a critical mass of 30 per cent representation.
When there are fewer numbers of women in parliament they are forced to act like their male counterparts. Men have dominated politics for a long time and people are accustomed to seeing men in power, so the status quo is rarely challenged.
With the exception of the Labour Party, which has an active policy of putting forward women candidates and has 35 per cent representation of women deputies in the Dáil, there is little interest by the political parties, which are the “gatekeepers”, to encourage women candidates to take office. The Scandinavian countries have achieved greater gender balance in their parliaments because they brought in quotas in the 1970s to jump-start their representation and when the gender balance levelled out, they no longer had to use quotas.
Countries that use quotas have on average 21.3 percent women in parliament, a figure five percent higher than the world average of 16.1 percent.
Ireland’s figure is less than 14 per cent.
Rwanda (and not Sweden) has the highest levels of female participation with 56.3 per cent representation of women in parliament. This came about after the 1994 genocide when a 30 per cent quota was introduced. Women did such a good job when elected their numbers increased in subsequent elections and quotas have now been dropped. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Surely the question put to the women politicians (Home News, August 4th) could have been preceded by another question asking if they (the women and indeed their male colleagues), were satisfied with the extent of female participation in Dáil Éireann? For those who answered No, their responses could have then suggested solutions, which could have reopened the debate at a new level.
Surely new faces are desperately needed at the top tables, particularly in today’s world where male-dominated board membership of our banks, along with our top public servants and our leaders of third-level institutions, continue to seek in their male dominated way possible solutions to our economic crisis. Nordic countries that in the 1990s deliberately sought out and promoted women to parliament are showing much more resilience to the current economic crisis than we are.
There is a tranche of qualified women available to serve our country, our boards and our governing bodies. Prof David Farrell suggests (August 7th), that we have “a dismal international record when it comes to women politicians” and asks us to consider gender quotas. He accepts that such quotas have worked in other countries, a sometimes crude solution, but one I believe in too.
However, whether it is the use of quotas, the introduction of fines for a failure to select women candidates (the French solution), or the development of women-friendly working environments, it is only when “the tone from the top” declares that a solution must be found will the sorry lack of women politicians in our conservative political parties, Fianna Fáil (8 per cent) and Fine Gael (9 per cent) be resolved. The Labour Party committed itself to such change and can proudly boast of a 34 per cent female representation in the Houses of the Oireachtas. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I admire some women’s grit and determination to get to be TDs on their own steam, but the women in your survey (Home News, August 4th) are TDs already. If you asked aspiring TDs would they like a leg up, the answer might be different.
To my mind, it’s not about being patronising or giving women an unfair “disadvantage”, it’s about correcting an imbalance. What about men and women giving women a leg up to redress the balance: a two-term gender-balancing period in the Dáil and after that it would be every “man” for herself.
A limit of two terms for all TDs would really shake up the place. Imagine the urgency that this would bring to the system. They would have to do their thing in 10-ish years and then move on.
No more fiefdoms, no more family seats, no more lifers. Refreshing! Of course this would be like turkeys voting for Christmas. – Yours, etc,