Call for gender quotas at local level and at Cabinet

Published: Friday, December 13, 2024

The Gender Quotas Alliance has written to all new TDs, party leaders, and General Secretaries to call for urgent action on women’s representation in politics. The alliance, which is led by the National Women’s Council (NWC) and includes leading academics and advocates for Traveller, migrant, and disabled women, says there is a need for “bold measures to support an increase of women in politics at all levels”. Alongside gender quotas for local elections and at Cabinet, they are also urging political parties to prioritise women, particularly women from under-represented groups, for co-option onto council seats left vacant by newly-elected TDs.

Just one in four local councillors are women in 2024, with similar under-representation at national level. NWC director Orla O’Connor said:

“These figures tell a very stark story of continued inequality for women. Local politics is extremely important in and of itself, but also often serves as a pipeline for the national level. And if people don’t see women on the ballot, they cannot vote for them. It is long past time we had legislative gender quotas at this level to address the extreme imbalance.”

52 local councillors will vacate their seats to take up seats at Leinster House following this election. As parties consider who to co-opt into these seats, the alliance has urged them to select women particularly diverse women such as women from Traveller backgrounds or women of colour.

Ms O’Connor continued

“Incumbents benefit from factors such as name recognition and positive associations with their work. Co-opting women into seats now left vacant would go a long way both towards increasing gender diversity at local level, and providing more women candidates with a real chance of being elected to the next Dáil. In the context of 40% gender quotas at that level, this is extremely important.”

Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager, See Her Elected, said:

“Political parties talk a good talk about supporting women in politics, but now is the time to walk the walk. The co-option process is a real and immediate opportunity to demonstrate commitment to gender equity in local government. If women, and women from differing backgrounds are not present in the grassroots membership, then party leaders need to ask why and have a recruitment plan implemented that is not mere lip-service. Politics is a long game, and so is candidate development,”

The alliance, in its letter to party leaders, also calls for a commitment to gender equality at all levels of government, including that women would make up at least 40% of Cabinet Ministers, at least 40% of Junior Ministers, and at least 40% of Dáil Committee Chairs and Vice Chairs.

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Find here the letter: https://www.nwci.ie/images/uploads/Gender_Quotas_Alliance_letter_GE24.pdf

And the Gender Quotas Alliance position paper: https://www.nwci.ie/images/uploads/FINAL_Formatted_Gender_Quotas_Position_Paper.pdf