How women fared in final tally
There will be little change in the number of female TDs in the 33rd Dáil
‘We’re back to four men again in my constituency ‘This time, it seems to have stagnated’
THERE is unlikely to be a significant increase in the number of female TDs in the new Dáil.
As counting continued in some constituencies late last night, just 35 women had so far been elected to the 33rd Dáil. And it appeared unlikely that the number of women TDs would increase significantly on the number elected in 2016.
Of the 35 women who are sure to enter the Dáil this year, 16 are first-time TDs while 19 have been re-elected.
A significant number of big-name losses have been women, including Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty; Higher Education Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor; Fine Gael’s Kate O’Connell and Fianna Fail’s Brexit spokeswoman Lisa Chambers.
This comes despite the fact that around 31% of the 530 candidates contestants were women.
There were also calls for political parties to prepare for next year, when the gender quota for selecting female candidates is set to increase to 40%.
As counting continued in a handful of constituencies last night, the Social Democrats’ Jennifer Whitmore in Wicklow was elected on the 14th count.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil’s Niamh Smyth was tipped to retain her seat in CavanMonaghan where the count was ongoing, as Independent candidate and former TD and MEP Marian Harkin was elected in Sligo-Leitrim.
Labour – who had seven TDs in the last Dáil – now have just six and they have lost their only two female TDs from the last Dáil, former Tánaiste Joan Burton and former Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan.
Ms O’Sullivan was first elected a TD in 1998 and last night she told the Irish Daily Mail that while she was personally disappointed she had lost her seat, she was also ‘really disappointed that so many women who made a big contribution have lost their seats’.
She pointed to the fact that herself, Kate O’Connell, Lisa Chambers and Ruth Coppinger were some of the significant female contributors on the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment and that they had all lost their seats in the weekend’s poll.
‘I think it is disappointing that women who have made a significant contribution have lost their seats, but that’s the nature of democracy.
‘But I think we would’ve hoped that we would’ve moved forwards rather backwards, I don’t know what the final tally of women is going to be, but it could be less than the last time,’ she said.
‘In my own constituency – just to take Limerick as an example – there has never been a woman representing the county Limerick constituency. I am in the city constituency.
‘And before I was elected, there was a 90-year gap from the previous woman, who was elected in 1921 and finished up in 1923. So we are gone back to four men again in my own constituency.’
Women in politics is something she feels ‘very strongly about’ and admitted it was ‘hard to pin it down’ why female participation is stagnating.
Ms O’Sullivan praised Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers, a prominent frontbencher who lost her seat in Mayo, and hailed her as being ‘very courageous’.
‘I think Lisa was a very courageous person in the party she was in, that she was willing to take a stand that she believed to be right.’
Ms O’Sullivan, who also previously served in the Seanad, said she now plans to take a step back from electoral politics ‘and let somebody younger move in and fight back… the fight-back is always worth doing’.
Of the 35 female TDs who had been elected as of last night, 13 of these were Sinn Féin representatives, six from Fine Gael, four were Fianna Fáil, two from the Green Party, four for the Social Democrats and five were Independents or members of Solidarity-People Before Profit.
Of the 35 women who were elected in 2016, so far just 19 are returning; others have retired or didn’t seek re-election, moved to Europe as MEPs or are still facing ongoing counts.
Fine Gael TD and European Affairs Minister Helen McEntee – who was comfortably elected in Meath-East with 12,984 votes – said she was glad the number of female TDs has not dropped dramatically but that she would’ve liked to ‘have seen it increase’.
Speaking to the Mail, Ms McEntee said she has ‘always been of the belief that we need to start introducing’ gender quotas at an earlier stage in politics.
‘Because, the idea that you just find people to run for the Dáil for a general election without them having been either working as a councillor, or within the system or involved in politics, it’s just a very difficult thing to do when we haven’t had women naturally over the years working in politics,’ the Meath-East TD said.
She has now been elected to the Dáil on three occasions. The first time was in a by-election in 2013 following the death of her father Shane, and subsequently in two general elections, in 2016 and 2020.
Ms McEntee described politics as a ‘fantastic position to be in’, but acknowledged it can be tough and pointed particularly to the fact that elected representatives can often be subjected to ‘unacceptable’ abuse online.
‘For me it’s always about the more women involved, the more other women see that and it becomes more of a reality. It becomes more of a possibility for them and hopefully encourages them as well,’ Ms McEntee said.
Speaking about gender quotas,
she said she doesn’t believe they are as effective at a national level if they are not implemented or in place at a local level.
‘So I think we need to look at that if we are going to try and make that progress, because we have to look at the fact that we seem to have stagnated at this election. ‘We took such a big leap in the last election, it was fantastic and everybody thought we are moving in the right direction, but this time around it seems to have – for whatever reason- stagnated a bit,’ she added.
Orla O’Connor, director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, last night called on parties to ‘develop candidate selection processes that look outside traditional networks.’
‘The gender quota for candidate selection is set to rise to 40% in 2023 so all parties need to step up to the mark to achieve this,’ she also said.
‘This election signals a new era in Irish politics where the twoparty system of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has been broken.
‘A new government will have a huge opportunity to champion women’s rights and equality,’ Ms O’Connor added.
‘It is very worrying, however, that in 2020 we still have not broken the critical mark of 30% representation by women in politics,’ she said.
‘While we are awaiting the final results, it is clear that the number of women elected is at a standstill in comparison to 2016.
‘Women only made up 31% of all of the candidates. In rural areas, women made up just 22% of candidates as opposed to 44% in urban areas. Addressing the deficit in rural areas requires concrete actions and measures.’