My Career: ‘Best bit? When you get to chat with a woman thinking of running for election’

Name: Elaine Duggan

Age: 48

Lives: Crosshaven

Job title: Digital Media and CRM Coordinator with See Her Elected. SHE is a programme under Longford Women’s Link (a social enterprise in County Longford). We support women in rural Ireland to become county councillors, or support another woman’s campaign to run for local election.

SHE operates in person and also online, meaning we have a presence in every county in Ireland - including Cork. The programme is fully funded by the Irish Government’s Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Salary: The role is a part-time one, 21 hours a week, and the pay is in line with the sector.

Education background: BA in English and Sociology from UCC, Masters in Journalism from NUI Galway, a Digital Marketing Cert from MTU.

Hobbies: Walking our dog Charlie, enjoying the beautiful coastline around our village, crafting (many unfinished projects!), binging on TV series.

Describe your job in five words: Helping women become county councillors.

Describe yourself in five words: Professional, diligent, hardworking, loyal, creative.

Personality needed for this kind of work? Friendly, approachable, organised.

How long are you doing this job? Six months.

How did you get this job? I worked as a journalist for almost 25 years. I started out as a reporter with The Echo, moved onto the newsdesk as assistant news editor, then deputy news editor. Ten years ago, I moved to the features department, as deputy features editor, which included editing this supplement - Women on Wednesday (WoW!) which was my favourite part of the role.

I left my role at The Echo back in November, 2024, due to family commitments, unsure of what was next. I was sad to leave, but really proud of all that I had achieved over the years and it was particularly touching that I was presented with the Network Ireland President’s Award that same year, honouring the work I had done over the past decade, advocating for the women of Cork through sharing their stories in WoW! The timing of that honour really meant the world to me.

After a few months at home, I knew I wanted to return to the workplace, albeit with a different work/life balance. I signed up to the Rejuvenate course at UCC, hosted by Ingrid Seim and Angela Smiddy - which I would highly recommend for anyone who is unemployed, or looking for a career pivot, or someone who is interested in re-entering the workforce after taking time out. The support, encouragement and work that they did with us, as well as the great camaraderie among the other women doing the course, was wonderful.

When I spotted the role with See Her Elected advertised, I jumped at the opportunity. I had upskilled in the field of Digital Media, I was looking to work with a social enterprise/NGO/charity, it was part-time, which worked with family life, I had also been aware of the amazing work they did - it seemed like my dream role.

I started the job back in May and I am loving it. It has been a big learning curve, but I am once again blessed with the most amazing, inspiring, helpful colleagues, who have supported me as I found my feet in the new role.

Do you need particular qualifications or experience? Having knowledge of the local authority system in Ireland is important - but I am still learning every day. I would have covered council meetings in Cork City and Cork County Councils as a young reporter, and worked on the newsdesk during a number of local and national elections, so all that has been useful.

I have been getting to grips with our new CRM system, which is an amazing tool and will be so useful for us as we head towards local elections 2029.

Digital media skills are also a core part of my job. As social media platforms are forever changing, it is important to keep up to date. That is why I am looking forward to keeping up-to-date with different courses through the Digital Marketing School run by The Digital Marketing Crowd.

I love the concept of life-long learning and it’s something that I think we should all embrace.

Describe a day at work:

On a typical day working from home, I log on around 9am, once the kids are gone to school. I check emails, make a to-do-list for the day. We usually have an online meeting early in the morning for an hour, to catch up on what we are all working on - it could be planning an online or in-person workshops, or meeting with stakeholders, doing reach out to individuals who have signed up to SHE.

We recently launched our Guide to Running in the 2029 Local Elections.

We are also preparing to host our 2026 Election Workshop series, starting in January, which I am really excited about. So we are putting those together on our SHE Academy, promoting them, and encouraging women to sign up.

If you can see yourself as a candidate or in a campaign team for the 2029 local elections, then why not take part, for more see www.seeherelected.ie.

We host the workshops around women’s lives, so hosting sessions at 7am, 10am, 1pm and 8pm on different days. These workshops are all hosted online through our SHE Academy.

So the job has a huge variety! The days go pretty quickly and I usually finish up at 4.30pm - just in time to start making the dinner, and helping with homework!

How many hours do you work a week? 21 hours a week. Monday to Wednesday.

Is your industry male or female dominated? SHE is a three-person, all female team - there is myself, Programme Manager Dr Michelle Maher, and Communications and Development Manager Megan Flynn Dixon.

And, of course, those who take part in See Her Elected activities, are also all female - women looking to find out more about local politics, women who want to run for election, or women who wish to support another woman’s campaign.

Does this affect you in any particular way? Not at all. It is wonderful to work with an amazing supportive duo on the SHE team and also women who want to get involved in political life, for the betterment of their local communities and society.

Just 27% of our local councillors are female - we need more! SHE is working to increase this.

Is your job stressful? How? Rate it on a scale of 1-10: Having worked for a daily newspaper for so long, stress has always been part of work life, as any journalist will attest to - working to deadlines, in a busy newsroom. However in my new role, working a three-day week gives me a really nice balance. While we are a small, but very busy team, there are only very rare occasions where one might feel stressed - but that rarely happens, with such great support from colleagues.

Do you work with others or on your own? Myself and my two colleagues all work remotely, but we try to meet up at least once a month, somewhere between where we all live - we travel from Cork, Galway and Mullingar - so the role has taken me to Longford, Offaly and Tipperary, as well as Dublin so far! I really love the days we get to meet in person and always head home feeling inspired!

When do you plan to retire or give up working? I turned 48 this year, but the prospect of retiring still seems a long way off still.

Best bits: Getting to work with a great team.

When you pick up the phone to chat to a woman who tells you they are seriously thinking about running in 2029.

Or when you ring someone who is so glad to hear your voice on the other side of the phone, telling them all about the great supports SHE can offer them, if they plan on being a candidate or want to help another woman run.

Worst bits:

Realising that there is still a long way to go, especially in some counties, in increasing female representation in our county councils.

Also, SHE is funded annually, so it would be great if we had more security, or were funded through an entire election cycle, of five years, rather than every 12 months.

Advice to those who want your job? You can’t have it! I’m hoping the SHE team will want to hang onto me for a bit longer! I’m only six months in the role, so hoping this is only the beginning.

Any other comments? If you are interested in politics, would love to run for the local council in Cork, or indeed anywhere in the country, or support a woman’s campaign, drop us a line.

You will find out more information on our website www.seeherelected.ie