Sir, – Tom Farrell (October 19th) may think he inhabits a virtual world of woolly feminism and oestrogen supplements on the pages of The Irish Times, where he believes “privileged women pontificate”, but obviously the sight of a woman’s name on a piece clouds his vision of what she’s actually writing about.
On the Opinion pages in which his letter appears, Katherine Zappone calls for legislation for those who are transgender while Angela Long discusses the treatment of asylum seekers. Neither of these topics is unique to feminism. In his usual column on the same page, John Waters (who regularly champions male concerns) discusses the oddball nature of the radicals in the Dáil. All of the names he mentions are male. I’m unsure if the Dáil should be considered part of the real world or the virtual one, but there’s certainly no room for feminism, woolly or otherwise there, as only 25 out of 166 members is female.
The cosy virtual world of The Irish Times has also devoted five pages to sport today. The only female sportwoman mentioned in those five pages is Katie Taylor.
In a world where only one in five parliamentarians are women, where there are only 17 female heads of state, where women hold a mere 18 out CEO positions in the Forbes top 500 companies and where the gender paygap is 15.6 per cent, I applaud The Irish Times for allowing a whiff of oestrogen on its pages. However it’s disappointing that the oestrogen hasn’t prevented Mr Farrell from using the negative language that is often used when women write or speak in public. Men assert. Women pontificate. Men are decisive. Women are bossy. Men are passionate. Women are emotional.
Perhaps The Irish Times needs to increase the dose. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Your supplement (“How Irish Women Won the Vote” October 17th) notes that women in South Australia gained voting rights in 1894. Readers may be interested to know it was an Irish woman – Mary Lee, nee Walsh (1821-1909), who spearheaded the campaign for female suffrage.Mary, born in Co Monaghan, came to South Australia in 1879 and some years later became the founding secretary of the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League. Australian democracy owes much to her leadership and energy. – Yours, etc,