Laura Larkin
Smarter parties will field more female candidates
GENDER quotas are the political equivalent of visiting the dentist – uncomfortable and easily put off but in the end necessary and useful.
Resisting calls to impose gender quotas ahead of the local elections will be seen by many as a missed opportunity. But, for political parties, the real missed opportunity would be a failure to field as many female candidates as possible.
A look back at 2014 shows that women – particularly young women – delivered the goods for parties across the spectrum. For Fine Gael and the Labour Party, who suffered a fall in support, it was their female candidates, like Rebecca Moynihan in Crumlin-Kimmage (Lab) and Maura Hopkins (FG) in Roscommon, who bucked the trend in many places.
For the smaller parties, female candidates brought home more than 100,000 votes and cemented support in areas outside of the traditional heartlands of their parties, according to an analysis at the time by elections expert Adrian Kavanagh.
And it was young blood that stole the show in many respects, with 43 candidates aged under 35 taking seats.
A brief look at the numbers should encourage those in the back room as they plot their course for 2019, as women have been reinvigorated by the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment.
The grassroots campaign galvanised a new generation of young women who have experienced first-hand what it feels like to exercise their political capital.
The Social Democrats have already plucked some promising young women who cut their political teeth on the campaign as potential candidates for the general election. Any strategist worth their salt will be trawling through this pool for talented operators who had their finger on the pulse in ways many in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael simply did not.
The importance of gender balance in all sectors of society can’t be understated and savvy political parties should lead from the front – it’s in both their interests and ours.