That's very unfair on FF. They are the party which decriminalised homosexuality. Done by a female minister for justice.
Fair points. In general politicians bottle it and wait to be forced to change things by the Supreme Court or the EU.On foot of a ruling from the ECHR after a case was brought by David Norris. Most of our legislation was brought in on foot of lobbying from the Law Reform commission, or after legislative challenges, constitutional referendums, ECHR rulings and in light of changing societal values. I don't think any political party can really claim a moral victory for these- should we say that FG/Labour changed the law to allow gay marriage?
I don't see a connection between quotas and feminism as feminism is meant to be about equality. That said we do need more female TD's.On the candidates , it was 30% for FF and FG, 33% for Labour and 35% for Sinn Féin. Not really a significant difference there.
All of the parties want to maximise seats. If they think that a woman is the most likely to win a seat, they will either nominate her or add her. I don't know the story of Averil Power. But didn't Sinn Féin have problems with Sandra McLellan? Fine Gael had problems with Perry up in Sligo, but that doesn't make them feminists either.
Brendan
The more relevant point is that we need more capable TD's and I agree that there are many capable female candidates out there. However it has often been pointed out that Irish politics requires an enormous time commitment and has tended to retain the "boys club" atmosphere of old. I have often raised the issue of a lack of women at management level in our own organization and I find that many of the capable candidates are just not prepared to put up with the hassle involved. i.e. dealing with a misogynistic culture and the necessary requirement of becoming "one of the boys".That said we do need more female TD's.
Can't the very same be said for men!while politics does involve taking some flack I feel that most women would be unprepared to expose themselves to this when they could get a well paid alternative position if they had the talent!
No, if they say it they are wimps.Can't the very same be said for men!
- should we say that FG/Labour changed the law to allow gay marriage?
It doesn't make them feminists. And those were all issues around candidate selection. This isn't really about the candidate selection so much as how that translated into seats. FF had the poorest result in that regardOn the candidates , it was 30% for FF and FG, 33% for Labour and 35% for Sinn Féin. Not really a significant difference there.
All of the parties want to maximise seats. If they think that a woman is the most likely to win a seat, they will either nominate her or add her. I don't know the story of Averil Power. But didn't Sinn Féin have problems with Sandra McLellan? Fine Gael had problems with Perry up in Sligo, but that doesn't make them feminists either.
Brendan
It is really presumptious to assume that Dail seats reflects a party being a cold place for women.Looking at the outcome of this election there is one particular thing that has struck me. Each of the parties were bound by the Phil the Pheminist rule - you had to field 30% female candidates. But how has this translated into seats?
Final figures are not in but what is ABUNDANTLY clear is that Fianna Fáil (unsurprisingly) is a cold place to be a woman. As Averil Power found, party members don't exactly treat their female representatives with respect. This election clearly shows that their voters take a similar tack.
With 12 seats yet to fill these are the numbers
FG
89 candidates - 27 female
46 elected - 12 female (so 26% though that will likely drop slightly)
FF
71 candidates - 21 female
42 elected - 6 female (so 14% which may also drop slightly)
Labour
36 candidates - 12 female
6 elected - 2 female (precisely the same percentage though that again may drop slightly and is skewed by Labour's trouncing)
SF
50 candidates - 18 female
22 elected - 5 female (so 23% - again may drop slightly)
Since Phil's rule levelled the playing field by forcing them all to start with in or about the same percentage it means that the significant loss of female candidates for FF is down to something awry in FF itself
FF is hardly the most anti woman organisation that is widely supported by women. The Catholic church, Islam, the fashion industry are just three things that spring to mind.
The oppression of women is usually fully supported by women.
It is really presumptious to assume that Dail seats reflects a party being a cold place for women.
It isn't a question of whether or not they are supported by women. And it isn't really a question of "oppression" either. The relevant comparison is between the political parties. Phil the Pheminist set up the conditions for a natural experiment. All the parties started with similar percentages of female candidates. Greens (50%), Social Democrats (67%), AAA-PBP (33%) and Labour (29%) are all too small to be useful to compare outcomes of the election on these candidates but the other three are all large enough in the Dáil to examine.
On the final results we have
FG - 50 in total - 39/11 (22%)
FF - 44 in total - 38/6 (14%)
SF - 23 in total - 17/6 (29%)
Lab - 7 in total - 5/2 (29%)
AAA-PBP - 6 in total - 4/2 (33%)
SD - 3 in total 1/2 (67%)
Greens 2 in total 1/1 (50%)
The outcome of the experiment is that, in terms of achieving more female representation in politics FF's result is not dreadful (and absolutely and improvement on managing to aggravate their only female TD into leaving the party last year) but is measurably less than the other parties. What causes that discrepancy is probably a combination of multiple influences but taken at face value FF is not the party to run for if you are a woman.
Whether or not it is presumptuous is a matter of opinion. I am not a member of FF or any party so I can only draw inference from what I see from the outside. Objectively, at the very least, the election outcome clearly points to "a lot more to do" for FF in particular when it comes to women in politics. The nice thing about the election data is that it is a pleasing natural experiment. They all had the same starting point yet the FF outcome is out of step with the others. The simple truth is that female FF candidates did considerably worse than female candidates for any of the other parties. Not only are they under-represented in the Dáil in comparison to the other parties, the difference in the success rate for male FF candidates and female FF candidates is considerably wider than any other party. 76% of male FF candidates made it to the Dáil, whereas 29% of their female candidates achieved the same. FG enter the Dáil with 63% of their male candidates and 41% of their female and SF with 53% of their male and 33% of their female candidates. SF's rate of return for female candidates is little better than FF but their men are less successful.
If that were true (and I think you mean, ultimately the result reflects the choice of the electorate), there would be little or no difference between the parties.Ultimately the result reflects the electorate, not FF housekeeping
I think you possibly need to research this a little further. Hostility and discrimination may be on the wane but they are still alive and kicking in Ireland (lovely example recently on Camden street of a women beaten up for being gay and unwilling to acquiesce to an unreasonable request from a lout). I would suspect more than one woman would question your assertion regarding the ability of women to follow their preferences and how those preferences are arrived at. The majority of home carers are women and not all of them have had much choice in the matter. Issues around childcare and elderly care affect women disproportionally, there is still a pay gap between men and women and low representation of women in careers as diverse as politics, literature and science as well as low representation of women in the upper echelons of most professions is not due to "when women have the choice their prefer female dominated professions". On International Women's Day - I would suggest you have a good look around.The main reasons TDs are mostly male is down to the career preferences of Irish women not hostility or discrimination. Ireland has an excellent social net that enables women to follow their preferences, and often when women have the choice their prefer female dominated professions. Some of the most female friendly countries have the largest gender gaps due to this.
Assertion without proof is simply opinion. Where is the evidence of this?Some of the most female friendly countries have the largest gender gaps due to this.
No she quoted the <ahem> resistance she encountered from the party regarding their lukewarm "support" of a yes vote in the marriage referendum. Band-wagon jumping springs to mind as an appropriate description of lip-service support of what was a popular cause among young people in particular.Averil Power didn't cite FF aggravation to women as a reason she left
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