Missing women will impact the quality of our political decision

Published: Friday, February 07, 2025

The National Women’s Council (NWC) today (7th February) welcomed the nomination of 7 women by the Taoiseach to the Seanad as a step to address women’s underrepresentation in our Oireachtas. However, the overall picture of women’s representation in national politics following the General and Seanad election remains deeply disappointing. NWC is calling on the Government to prioritise actions that will promote the participation and representation of women in all aspects of society, including leadership in politics. 

Despite a record number of 246 women running in the General Election, we only saw a marginal increase in the number of women elected, rising from 37 to 44 (25%). 
There is also only a slight improvement for the representation of women in the Seanad with 20 women being elected, up from 15 in 2020, and 7 women nominated by the Taoiseach today. This brings the overall number of women to 27 out of 60 (up from 24 out of 60 previously).
It was deeply disappointing to see the number of women in the Cabinet decrease from 4 to 3 and only 6 women appointed as Super Junior Ministers amongst a record number of 23 overall. 

Rachel Coyle, Head of Campaigns and Mobilisation said,

“NWC is deeply disappointed by the lack of women in our Oireachtas and in Government following the election. As a result, we are likely to see five more years where women, who constitute more than half of the population, will not have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives." 

She continued, 

“The inclusion of women in politics is not aspirational or optional, it is a key requirement for good and effective policy making. Without women’s equal representation, our democracy remains unfinished.  

We now need a comprehensive strategy that systematically addresses the multiple barriers that women face in politics. While the gender quota for general election candidates was key in this regard, we see that on its own it is not sufficient. The Government parties who both performed poorly in getting women candidates elected need to address this now and not wait until the next election comes around.”

NWC is calling on the new Government to demonstrate clear leadership on the issue and prioritise actions that will promote women’s participation in all aspects of society, including leadership in politics.  This includes the development of and investment in a public system of childcare, the urgent adoption of gender quotas for Local Elections and addressing women’s income inequality, particularly for lone parents.

In addition, there are concrete steps that all political parties can take right now to promote greater political participation of women in politics.  

Rachel Coyle said,

“There is an urgent need in particular within the two main Government parties to address gender imbalance within their organisation.  This must go beyond just fulfilling the gender quota for election candidates and includes nurturing a culture that supports and promotes women in their diversity within their parties. 

This means ensuring women are not added late to the ticket, that their campaigns are adequately staffed and resourced, that they are supported early on to build their profile and run an effective ground campaign. Where women are elected, it means promoting women to all levels of Government, including positions that have never been held by a woman in this State, such as Minister of Finance or Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

At local level, an important and concrete way to ensure an effective pipeline of women candidates is to use the vacancies at local level following the election as a way to coopt women into Council seats.”