Cork conference looks at how to make politics more accessible, inclusive, safe and equal for women

WOMEN for Election’s national ‘Count Her In’ conference in Cork city boasted an impressive line-up.

President of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, Leader of the Social Democrats, Holly Cairns, Senator Eileen Flynn and Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik, among others, shared passionate messages of equality and bravery from the podium, urging Irish women to come forward to make their mark in politics.

Singers and musicians punctuated the day-long event with suitably stirring performances. Karen Underwood gave credence to Lord Mayor Cllr Deirdre Forde’s claim that Cork City Hall has acoustics rivalling Sydney’s Opera House, when she belted out Nina Simone’s Feeling Good to a standing ovation from an adoring crowd. Young performers from The Kabin and singer Michelle Fitzgerald also did the city proud.

But, despite all the above, a certain negativity hung over proceedings. The data shared at the event by academics Dr Lisa Keenan and Dr Fiona Buckley cast a particularly dark cloud.

The academics’ most interesting share was their assessment of the 5 Cs as identified in the 2009 Women’s Participation in Politics report.

The 5Cs are the five barriers women face when it comes to involvement in politics: Childcare, Cash, Confidence, Culture and Candidate selection procedures.

Highlights of the New Report

Childcare received a C grade with ‘little progress on the implementation of recommendations’ shared in 2009. In the Cash category, the review concluded that ‘very little progress’ has been made, with men having far more access to this resource than women. Culture also showed very limited progress.

The most positive reflection came in the Candidate Selection Category. A gender quota established in 2012 now ensures that at least one third of a party’s candidates are female.

The next most positive grade came in the Confidence category where ‘good progress’ has apparently been made. This Count Her In event was certainly all about building confidence for the job.

Stepping Up

For chief executive of Cork’s Sexual Violence Centre Mary Crilly, sitting at a central table at the Count Her In event, women stepping into political life is of huge benefit to all of society.

“It’s very important that we have more women in politics because women get it. They understand. It is not that men don’t, but it’s different for them because they haven’t lived it.

“It’s wonderful to see people like Ivana and Holly in politics because they really care about certain issues. The issues are at the front of their agendas. They are not after-thoughts.”

Ms Crilly saw little issue with the lack of men at the event, with short messages coming in from the President, the Tanáiste and the Taoiseach.

“Women-friendly spaces help women in politics and they help highlight injustices that need to get turned over, like the fact that a lot of meetings in politics are held at night because male politicians have women at home looking after the children. 

Events like today are important for working against this.

Table Talk

Other attendees, with whom I shared a table, were less optimistic. Anne O’Connell, principal of St Patrick’s National School, said she had come to see the future of Ireland and to see what was being done for the women she meets every day, who look after everybody’s care needs and who are disenfranchised.

“We are still a very patriarchal society. Mothers and grandmothers are still the ones keeping things together when everything else falls apart. They are also the people not in power.”

Trish Whelan, working in Community Employment, said she “firmly believes there needs to be more women in politics as the government has been creating a huge amount of negativity across various organisations lately.”

Her belief is that far-right agitators are taking advantage of the government’s failure to communicate clearly and their failure to organise people inclusively.

Tellingly, neither woman came to the event with any intention of getting into politics; they just wanted to know who to get behind.

They expressed a fondness for politicians in the past like Kathleen Lynch who, alongside Máirín Quill, really looked after people on the northside of the city. Anne’s eyes visibly lit up when Kathleen arrived and sat at our table.

Social Class

A number of speakers highlighted the lack of marginalised women in office.

Senator Eileen Flynn, a member of the Traveller community, reminded the audience that counting ‘her’ in must be about counting ‘all’ women in. “We cannot forget about women on the margins. We must create positive spaces and opportunities for these women. Nothing about us, without us. This is not about a hand-out, it is about getting a hand up.”

Former TD Kathleen Lynch acknowledged the lack of certain minorities but, tongue firmly in cheek, whispered to me that there are many minorities over-represented in the Dáil.

“They are everywhere, certain minorities. The doctors, solicitors, the business people. Those minorities are doing very, very well,” she concluded, with a twinkle in her eye and a growing assurance in her voice.

And they need to add another C. Courage!

On my left sat an academic from University College Cork, Philip Murphy, who shone an interesting light on Kathleen’s suggestion of women needing such courage.

“The research I conduct shows a huge disparity between how boys and girls think about themselves. Boys show far more self-efficacy than girls, even when they have comparable skills.”

A young speaker from Comhairle na nÓg, Akshita Gupta, echoed Philip’s thoughts on stage when she highlighted “something really wrong in the way we raise our girls”.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou MacDonald tied in the nationalist agenda in her hope that this generation of women will “be the first to win an island denied to our mothers and grandmothers.”

She ended her speech by looking at the audience with one clear and simple line: “It’s over to you.”

Finishing Up

The question I asked myself? If it is indeed ‘over to me’, should it be?

The Irish Examiner’s Ciara Phelan, excellent as MC, kickstarted the event by asking women to raise their hands if they were considering getting involved in politics. When only a few hands were raised, she shared the hope that hands would be shooting up by the close of the conference.

My dominant feeling leaving the event was that change won’t happen unless women make it happen.

Currently, Ireland is ranked 101st in the world for gender parity in Parliament and in a European context, we are within the bottom six. Only 23% of our TDs are women.

But it might just be that women are too busy keeping the world together, as Anne O’Connell suggests. Women are too busy getting single mothers back into employment. They are too busy teaching infants. They are too busy caring for the world to have the time to change it.

Perhaps men in power need to do more to extend a workable invitation to women? Perhaps changes in childcare and working conditions need to come first? Perhaps a male leader in Irish politics should have bothered to attend?

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s short message for attendees was that “until we have full equality, parity, we are a republic unfinished.”

The assumption exists that it will take women to do the work of finishing, not men.

* In this week's WoW!, we interview Cork’s only female TD, Holly Cairns, leader of the Social Democrats.