Irish women among the worst represented in parliament, worldwide

Published: Thursday, March 03, 2005

The National Women's Council of Women (NWCI) has today reacted to the results of a survey by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, published yesterday at the UN Headquarters in New York, which shows that Irish women are among the worst represented in parliament worldwide by their own gender.

The survey shows that in Ireland, representation of women in political decision-making is worse than the global average.

'The results do not come as a surprise to the NWCI' stated Marie Hainsworth, Deputy Chairperson, NWCI. 'However, the figures for women in political decision-making positions remain startling for those of us interested in advancing the position of women in Ireland.'

In Ireland, women account for just 13.5 per cent of TDs - with 22 members out of a total of 166 TDs returned at the May 2002 General Election. According to the survey, in world-ranking terms; this places Ireland in joint 63rd place with Barbados.

NWCI figures show that this percentage (13.5 per cent) has only risen by 1 per cent over the last 10 years. 'At this rate, it will take 370 years for the percentage of women in the Dail to reach 50 per cent ' stated Ms Hainsworth.

The NWCI welcomes the timeliness of the survey results, in light of their chosen theme for their celebration of International Women's Day on Tuesday March 8th, 2005. Ms Hainsworth explained : 'The Council will host a seminar in the Mansion House in Dublin to explore the issue of women in political decision-making and political representation in Ireland and to highlight the obstacles facing women currently engaged in or attempting to participate in political life in Ireland.'

'The NWCI are using International Women's Day to raise much-needed awareness on the lack of progress in this country to increasing the number of female representatives into all key decision-making arenas'.

The seminar theme will also be discussed in the context of the Beijing Platform for Action, which was adopted by 189 countries including the Irish government 10 years ago, this year (2005). The Beijing Declaration promised to remove all obstacles to equality for women and to ensure a gender perspective in all government policies and programmes. One of the key promises made was to ensure women's equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making.

'How can we claim to live in a democracy when 51 per cent of our population are women, but only 13 per cent of people elected to the Dail are women? How can the issues of Childcare, Health and Social Welfare be discussed
if women are not part of that discussion and of the decision-making processes of this country?' queried Ms Hainsworth in conclusion.