Martina Devlin
Varadkar’s snub to new female talent hints at grim future
When Constance Markievicz was appointed Labour Minister in the first Dáil in 1919, she became the second female cabinet minister in the world and the first in Europe. Ireland was trail-blazing. Except our fledgling State rapidly ran out of zeal.
It took another 60 years before a woman sat at the Cabinet table when Máire Geoghegan-Quinn was named Gaeltacht Minister. That didn’t herald a revolution, however – progress remained halting.
Consider the cracks to the glass ceiling caused by the countess, who died 90 years ago next month. She was not just the first woman to hold ministerial office in Ireland, but the first elected to the House of Commons in a landslide 1918 victory, although she took her seat instead in Dáil Éireann. Madame Markievicz was elected less than a year after women won the right to vote, and a matter of weeks after they were allowed to stand as MPs.
Her achievements were all the more remarkable when you consider that the three women elected to Westminster after her had the advantage of seats previously held by their husbands.
She died on July 15, 1927, at the age of 59, in the public ward of a Dublin hospital rather than in private care, as some in her position might have chosen. The countess was denied a State funeral by WT Cosgrave’s government, but the people showed their respect – tens of thousands turned up to her burial at Glasnevin.
Let us consider how the Dáil has evolved since that fearless, ground-breaking woman held office. Today, female deputies account for only 22pc of the total. As for seats at Cabinet, Leo Varadkar gives with one hand and takes away with the other. One fewer woman sits at his top table than had a place there last week. The new faces are all male: Eoghan Murphy, Michael Ring and Joe McHugh. Meanwhile, he shuffles the portfolios of women politicians already in situ, and replaces Attorney-General Máire Whelan with Seamus Wolfe.
Naturally, promotion should be based on talent. But anyone who believes every male in the Cabinet won his place exclusively because of ability is deluded. Other factors figure, from geography to loyalty.
“If the positions were reversed, and men held Cabinet posts in the numbers women currently do, men would be aghast. The same goes for Dáil numbers,” former tánaiste Joan Burton told the Irish
Independent ata Women For Election launch in Dublin’s Twitter headquarters.
Mr Varadkar is no Macron or Trudeau, despite comparisons. His Cabinet rejig failed to recognise new female talent – Helen McEntee (right), for example, doing excellent work on mental health issues. It’s hinted that further disappointment lies ahead for women TDs hoping to join the ranks of junior ministers on Tuesday. The problem is that the limited pool of candidates from which the Taoiseach chooses his ministers, with only one in five TDs being women. Consequently, a new Women For Election crowdfunding campaign unveiled this week is timely. The organisation is non-partisan, not-for-profit and run by volunteers, and aims to make our parliament more representative of Irish society. Women For Election realises that a critical mass of resolute, talented, articulate, organised women needs to engage with the mechanism of getting elected, finding ways to overcome barriers. Otherwise, the system simply grinds on. It is taking affirmative action by helping to prepare women candidates to run for office. The current fundraising project aims to train 300 women ahead of the 2019 local elections. Its training programmes, used by successful candidates in last year’s election, teach candidates how to run a political campaign – building campaign teams, fundraising, message development, presentation, media and other skills. I’m not suggesting women are inherently more gifted politicians than men, simply that they deserve an equal chance to enter politics and make a contribution. Women For Election aims to give them the tools to do that.
Change is not happening without interventions. That 22pc statistic is Ireland’s highest-ever female representation in parliament. Yet it is dismal. Stormont, by comparison, has 30pc women – in a regional parliament where four constituencies have no women MLAs – while Westminster has 32pc. The Scottish Assembly has 35pc and the Welsh Assembly can take a bow with 48pc.
Programmes to effect change do work. According to the global Inter-Parliamentary Union, electoral quotas – used in more than 120 countries – have underpinned much of the rise in female parliamentarians.
A quota system, requiring parties to field 30pc female candidates or lose funding, had its debut at last year’s General Election and modest gains ensued. A number of men were aggrieved at being left off the ticket, however. Some days ago, at a John Hewitt Society lecture in Belfast, I discussed this with George Bain, who helped to introduce the minimum wage in Britain. Nobody likes being collateral damage, he said – but at least it’s not wartime. Those men live to fight another day. He is one among a number of enlightened men who accept the need for positive action to stimulate change.
“Women keep knocking on the Leinster House door and the Cabinet door, but that reshuffle was not a great day for women,” Ms Burton said. “Our new youngestever Taoiseach should have had gender equality as an objective.” The former Labour leader notes there has never been a female finance or foreign affairs minister – jobs still reserved for members of the boys’ club.
“There are men who complain all the time about women raising gender-equality issues and it’s understandable – they’re fed up hearing about it. But if they actually did something they wouldn’t have to keep hearing about it. I’d prefer not to have to notice how few women there are in key roles.”
Others have noticed and are intent on driving through change. Michelle O’Donnell Keating, chair and co-founder of Women For Election, said: “Ireland lies at number 81 in the global rankings, behind Iraq and Afghanistan.” That speaks for itself. She also noted that Irish councils have just 21pc female councillors.
Change is possible, indeed essential, but it will take several electoral cycles to achieve.
As for the radical countess, I wonder what would Madame Markievicz would say to Leo Varadkar about his lacklustre reshuffle? Shape up and take a few chances, perhaps?
What would Madame Markievicz say to Leo Varadkar about his lacklustre reshuffle?
Women for Election has set a fundraising target of €50,000. Donations are welcome via www.womenforelection.ie/ donate