A new civil-society alliance has been launched to demand a 40 per cent gender quota for local election candidates as a measure to tackle gender inequality in the next programme for government.
Led by the National Women’s Council (NWC), the Alliance for Gender Quotas at Local Level brings together academics and advocates for Traveller, migrant and disabled women.
Rachel Coyle, head of campaigns at NWC, said the number of women in politics at local level “tells a stark story of gender inequality”.
In 2020, the Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality called on the Government to introduce quotas for the 2024 local elections.
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Women make up 26 per cent of local authority members, with only 247 out of 949 councillors. Only nine out of 31 local authorities have reached the 30 per cent threshold for female representation.
“Women are reshaping politics and driving vital issues – like gender-based violence and reproductive health – on to the agenda, but progress is painfully slow,” Coyle said.
“The poor results for women in June’s local elections are a wake-up call and we cannot wait another local election cycle for political parties to take this seriously. If women aren’t on the ballot locally, they simply won’t appear nationally,” she said.
Liliana Fernandez, leadership officer with NWC, said now was the time for “urgent action” to increase the number of women in politics at local level.
“This means equal numbers of women and men across the country and improved diversity through representation of women from different backgrounds: disabled women, minority ethnic women including Traveller and Roma women, and women from marginalised identities and communities,” she said.
Quotas are “one proven mechanism that can bring about urgently needed action to address the ongoing underrepresentation of women in local government”.
The new alliance is also calling for increased funding for political parties, councils and NGOs, tied to outcomes, to support women’s inclusion.
“For quotas to be effective, proper resourcing for engagement, capacity building and training will be needed,” the NWC said.
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