Analysis: Women councillors are ‘exceptional, because they have to be’

Ireland scores higher than the average on the European Gender Equality Index. On measurements of health, work, money and knowledge we are faring well.
However, if we turn to statistics on women in the world of politics, Ireland sits at 103rd in the world for female representation.

Of 160 TDs in Dáil Eireann 23 are women. There have only been 131 women ever elected to our parliament. A stark picture considering our first woman parliamentarian was Countess Constance Markievicz - the first woman ever elected to the Westminster parliament.

In a briefing before these local elections, Women for Election Ireland looked at the trends in Ireland this year.
Ireland doesn’t fare much better at local level than national level. We are 22nd out of 27 EU countries. Nationally just one quarter of all county councillors are women and there are 41 of Ireland’s 166 local electoral areas where not one woman was elected in the last local elections.

Kilkenny City was one of those areas that elected only men in 2019. Four of the 14 candidates were women, but none successful.
That year just one of eight candidates in the Castlecomer area was a woman, and she was elected.
In the Callan Thomastown area, in 2019, three of the 12 candidates were women and just one was elected.
Piltown saw three women run for election but out of the 10 candidates just one returned was a woman.
So just three women were elected to a Kilkenny County Council of 24 seats.

Since then that number has grown, when one more woman was co-opted to the council to replace a man elected to the Dáil.
In the upcoming local elections there is potential to increase the representation of women on Kilkenny County Council.

More then ever
This time there are more women than ever standing for election in Ireland. According to Adrian Kavanagh Elections, nationally 314 female candidates contested the 2009 local elections. This rose to 440 for the 2014 local elections, and 561 in 2019. This year there are 647.

In Kilkenny there are 13 women candidates this year, up from 10 in 2019 - one in Castlecomer and four in each of the other areas.
The Kilkenny women candidates are across the political spectrum, from the main parties to independent.

According to Women for Election “more women in politics makes politics work better for everyone.” They are asking voters to “research women candidates in (your) area and consider voting for them.”

The Women for Election organisation is based in Dublin and encourages and supports women in Ireland to run for politics by providing training and mentoring support while also advocating for systemic change. It is non-partisan and not-for-profit.

Brian Sheehan, CEO at Women for Election, said there are many competent and talented women running in this local election.
At the organisation’s pre-election briefing Claire McGing, who has carried out research into how to advance the selection and election of women, said aspiring women politicians are diverse but also have much in common.
These women are active in their communities and often have strong online platforms.

The success of women in elections depends on many factors and includes what party organisation they are a part of, and if they are in a rural or urban area. All candidates benefit from a strong party association and women tend to do better in elections in urban areas.
Women have more of a chance of being elected if they are running in an area with more seats. Sitting councillors also have an advantage.

Triple Shift
While there have been a lot of changes to the working conditions for councillors in recent years, including the introduction of maternity leave and the creation of women’s caucuses, there are also problems that were not foreseen even 10 years ago, like online abuse.

Ms McGing said much research has shown that in politics women tend to be more collaborative and less adversarial.
Addressing the issue of online abuse, Katie Deegan of Women for Election, said it is not putting people off deciding to enter politics.

Ms McGing said part of her research was asking women who were not running again why. Answers included online abuse but mostly it was for ‘bread and butter’ reasons like remuneration, workload and the ‘triple shift,’ ie work, home and then council life.
She added that most also said they had enjoyed being a councillor despite the challenges. “They are exceptional because they had to be,” Ms McGing said.

In the next general election parties must nominate a minimum of 40% of women candidates. There is no gender quota for local elections.