February 2012
On February 2, 2012 the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011, containing provision for candidate gender balancing at general elections, was introduced in Seanad Eireann by the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan TD. It proposes to remove one-half of state funding for the lifetime of a Dail from parties that do not select a minimum 30% female candidates at the next general election. Professor Yvonne Galligan, Director of CAWP was in the Seanad public gallery to witness the introduction of the Bill. She said: "This Bill, for which CAWP has campaigned, finally sees the light of day. It will ensure that women will no longer be severely under-represented in Irish parliamentary politics. It is heartening to see cross-party consensus on this issue. This is an historic day for democratic politics in Ireland." The text of the debate is available here

December 2011
On December 16, the draft legislation on political party funding and candidate gender quotas was published by the Irish government. The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill, 2011 provides for a 30% gender quota for party candidates at the next election, rising to 40% seven years later. Non-compliant parties will risk financial penalities.
Professor Yvonne Galligan, Director of CAWP, welcoming the bill said: 'This measure will finally break the glass ceiling of political representation for women in Ireland. It is the one area in which women have made hardly any progress over the last decade, compared to their advance in all other professions and careers. The bill will require parties to give the voters a gender choice at election times. With this bill, Ireland is following a global trend, as half the countries in the world use some form of gender quota for elections to their parliament.
The 30% provision is very attainable. QUB doctoral candidate, Fiona Buckley, has calculated that at the 2011 election just one more female party candidate in 38 of the 43 constituencies would have delivered the 30% quota.
This measure will add to the efforts currently underway to encourage women into political life. The work of Women into Public Life, Women for Election, Longford Women's Link Manifesto Group, among others, are supporting women across Ireland to become involved in political decision-making. The 50:50 campaign is lobbying for equal representation of women with men by 2020.
When this bill is passed, Ireland will be well on its way to joining the top 20 countires in the world for gender equality in political life.'

July 2011
Centre for Women and Democracy report on the impact of the UK government's legislative programme on women's representation, and other news relevant to women and politics in the UK is available here.

May 2011
As we await the results of the elections in Northern Ireland, it is interesting to note that in upcoming polls in Tunisia, there will be equal numbers of male and female candidates. More information here. Also, in Armenia the Prime Minister has ordered the government to look at a draft law to promote greater representation of women in central and local government and the National Assembly.

A recent Fabian report has forecast the complete demise of Liberal Democrat women in the House after the next election. The women MPs have mostly been able only to get selected for very marginal seats. As the Fabian report puts it, Party Leader Clegg's majority in Sheffield is about the same as all the LibDem women MPs' majorities combined. More information on this report can be found here.

April 2011
Invitation to Hustings Event:
'Voting for Gender Equality in the Northern Ireland Elections' Wednesday 6th April at 7pm in The Space, Queen's University Students' Union.
This event which will be chaired by CAWP Director, Prof. Yvonne Galligan is your opportunity to ask candidates in the upcoming Assembly election how their parties intend to tackle existing inequalities. More information available here.

March 2011
The final result in Ireland's 2011 general election saw 25 women being elected to the Dail, 2 more than at the 2007 election. Commenting on this outcome, Professor Yvonne Galligan, Director of CAWP congratulated the successful women candidates on winning seats in a hard-fought campaign. She went on to say "the absence of any woman among the 20 Fianna Fail TDs returned to parliament is something that party must urgently address. Indeed, the low representation of women in the Dail must be tackled as part of the wider push for political reform." View a summary of how women fared in the election here.

Data from the Central Statistics Office in the Republic of Ireland shows that women are under-represented in decision-making structures at both national and regional levels. In 2010, only 14% of TDs in Dail Eirrann were women, while they accounted for just over a third of members of State Boards, less than a fifth of members of locla authorities and just over a thrid of the membership of Vocational Education Committees. Women and Men in Ireland, 2010 is available on the CSO website

Reviewing the document Towards Recovery Programme for National Government 2011-2016, CAWP Director, Professor Yvonne Galligan welcomes the provisions supporting gender balanced representation. There is much still to be done, though, to deliver on the commitments of the Fine Gael-Labour government. CAWP supports the initiatives of the 50:50 Group, the National Women's Council of Ireland, Claiming our Future and the Political Reform Group in working to make these promises a reality. Read a more detailed summary and analysis here.

We now turn to the elections in Northern Ireland. The DUP is running 44 candidates in the NI Assembly Election due on 5 May 2011. Seven are women: Paula Bradley (North Belfast), Ruth Patterson (South Belfast), Michelle McIlveen (Strangford), Arlene Foster (Fermanagh & South Tyrone), Brenda Hale(Lagan Valley). Pan Lewis (South Antrim) and Evelyne Robinson (North Antrim). Women make up 16% of the DUP candidates.

February 2011
The Irish general election is in full swing and the list of candidates is confirmed. Women do not fare well, despite gender imbalance being a major talking point in the campaign. Overall, women comprise only 15% of the 566 candidates. Although a record number of independent candidates - 235 in all - are putting their names before the voters, only 25 of them are women. The five main parties do not show an overall increase in women candidates - 18.4% as compared with 18.7% in 2007. One could correctly interpret this as no advance at all. The best record was back in 1997 when women made up 19.8% of candidates. A table on candidacies by party and gender is available here. Mary Minihan has an excellent overview article on the subject in the Irish Times

Professor Yvonne Galligan, CAWP Director, opened the Sligo Institute of Technology conference on Reimagining Irish Political Culture on Friday 11 February 2011, stating, "Diversity is the key to reimagining Irish political culture. The inclusion of women and their views is one element in this process of change. Today's political crisis can be the seedbed of a genuinely inclusive and accountable democracy." Group Photo here.

January 2011
On the 5th January 2011, the Polish parliament passed a gender quota bill aimed at increasing women's participation in politics. This means that at least 35% of the party lists for the lower house of parliament must be women. The legislation does not apply to the upper house of parliament. Currently women make up 20% of the lower house and 8% of the upper house. The next elections are scheduled for Autumn 2011.

A new year has brought the news that the three finalists for the Politician of the Year award in Northern Ireland are all women:

Dawn Purvis for her integrity, work on PAC, position she took on UVF, stance on double-jobbing
Naomi Long for East Belfast result and local commitment
Margaret Ritchie for symbolic act of wearing a poppy and not doing a pact with Sinn Féin. Also strong on child sexual abuse

CAWP would like to support all three women and hope that this encourages more women into politics in Northern Ireland. The awards will take place on 10 February 2011. More information can be found here.

October 2010
On 1st October, CAWP Director, Professor Yvonne Galligan was a guest speaker at a seminar considering the current situation of women in public life in both the North and South of Ireland and how their under-representation can be addressed. The seminar organised by Women into Public Life also had Ms. Eileen Sung (Head of Gender & Sexual Orientation Equality at OFMDFM) and Ms. Pauline Moreau (Director of the Gender Equality Division, Department of Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affair) as speakers.

A new recently launched organisation, The Irish Feminist Network, is a network of women and men promoting gender equality across all aspects of Irish society. The launch which was attended by around 100 people included speakers such Senator Ivana Bacik, Anthea McTiernan and Susan McKay. To read a copy of journalist Anthea McTiernan's speech on Women in the Media, please click here. For more information please see the IFN website, or IFN can also be accessed on Face Book and Twitter.

September 2010
The EU strategy for gender equality, 2010-15, was published on September 21st. The strategy spells out a series of actions based around five priorities: the economy and labour market; equal pay; equality in senior positions; tackling gender violence; and promoting equality beyond the EU. Speaking on the launch of the Strategy for Equality between Women and Men 2010-2015, Professor Yvonne Galligan said 'CAWP welcomes this new plan, and we are particularly pleased with the attention to the need for more women in economic and political decisionmaking.'
Access the strategy document here

Women's Studies in University College Cork (UCC) in conjunction with the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) Gender Politics Specialist Group present a one-day conference: Moving in from the Margins: Women's political representation in Ireland. Saturday, 18th September 2010, University College Cork. More information and registration form available.
This conference was organised by QUB Doctoral candidate, Fiona Buckley, along with Dr. Sandra McAvoy (Women's Studies, University College Cork) and was a huge success. Attended by over 100 participants, the conference in UCC was opened by Mary Whyte TD, Minister for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. A range of speakers, including current or former Senators and TDs, spoke of ways to increase women's presence in Irish politics. CAWP director, Professor Yvonne Galligan, addressing the meeting, said "Voters should expect to have a number of women candidates to choose from in their constituency, just as they can choose from the array of male candidates on the ballot. The only way to expand voter choice is for the parties to introduce gender quotas for candidates." Fiona Buckley's doctoral research is on women in the political executive in Britain and Ireland. She also convenes the Gender and Politics study group of the Political Studies Association of Ireland. More information and speaker biographies available here. Photo 1; Photo 2; Photo 3; Photo 4.

June 2010
The Second European Conference on Politics and Gender (Budapest, 13-15 January 2011) has issued a call for papers, deadline June 18, 2010. More information can be found here.

May 2010
David Milliband, the front runner for the Labour leadership met with the women's PLP in the Commons on the 24th May, and set out his determination to increase the number of women MPs if he wins the leadership. For more information please follow this link.

The Women and Politics Group of the Political Studies Association have launched their Women and Politics blog. The blog is currently discussing women's representation after the UK general election.

Follow this link to view a very interesting clip featured on the Channel 4 News after the UK elections asking why so few women are in government/politics in Britain. The clip features interviews with Lesley Abdela of the Electoral Reform Society, Baroness Williams and Michelle Donelan MP. It also gives some cross country comparisons of women's representation.

Tara Keenan-Thomson launched her new book, 'Irish Women and Street Politics, 1956-1973' in The Naughton Gallery in Queen's yesterday (4th May 2010). Her book explores women's political activisim in Ireland from 1956-73 and includes interviews with Mary Kenny and other prominent activists who challenged the gender contract in the two jurisdictions. it is published by Irish Academic Press Ltd.

The Northern Ireland Women's European Platform invites you to listen and discuss on the issue of the Beijing Platform For Action. For more information, dates and locations for May 2010, please click on this flyer.

April 2010
Director of CAWP, Professor Yvonne Galligan, addresses the Australian Houses of Parliament on "Thinking about Gender and Democracy" on Friday 23 April. Photo of Professor Galligan and Dr. Rosemary Laing, Clerk of the Senate. Photo of Professor Galligan with Dr Laing and Mr Cleaver Elliott, Deputy Clerk of the Senate.

A debate on women's representation will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday 27 April in the Irish Senate. When the debate is online, CAWP will provide a link. For more information, please see the Oireachtas website.
This debate resumed on 19 May 2010 and the transcript can be found here.

Wikigender is a project initiated by the OECD Development Centre to facilitate the exchange and improve the knowledge on gender equality-related issues around the world. It can be accessed here.

March 2010
On Monday 15th March 2010, Professor Yvonne Galligan addressed the Trinity College Dublin Historical Society, debating the motion "This House Believes that the Modern Irish Woman has No Need of the Women's Movement". The debate, in the beautiful Exam Hall, was chaired by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland. The "Hist" is the oldest undergraduate debating society in the world, founded by Edmund Burke in 1770. Yvonne proposed the motion, and Susan McKay, chairperson of the National Women's Council of Ireland, was among those opposing the motion. Photo (Yvonne Galligan). Photo (Mary Robinson). Photo (Yvonne Galligan with auditor James Walsh and censor Emma Fenelon).

Fiona Buckley, whose doctoral research is on women and political leadership, discussed sexism in Irish politics in the Sunday Tribune (14 March 2010). You can read her article here. Fiona's research is supervised by Professor Yvonne Galligan and Dr. Alistair Clark

CAWP would like to wish you all a very Happy International Women's Day!
To mark International Women's Day the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is presenting a week-long factblog examining the social and economic status of women.

February 2010
Professor Yvonne Galligan will address the annual conference of the Civil Service Women Managers Network on the subject of enhancing women's role in public decision-making. The event takes place in Dublin Castle on Friday 12th February.

Congratulations to Margaret Ritchie on her election as the new leader of the SDLP!

January 2010
CAWP would like to congratulate Arlene Foster, winner of the women parliamentarian of the year 2008, on her appointment as First Minister (interim). Her appointment means that she becomes the first female head of government in the UK devolved parliamentary assemblies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and she also becomes the first female head of government among the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland.

September 2009
CAWP has run another successful Next Generation Leadership Programme. The programme scored an excellent 100% satisfaction rating by the participants. Our next course will run 18-22 January 2010 and we are now accepting applications! Please click on our Next Generation page for more information, photos and an application form.

April 2009
Prof. Yvonne Galligan and Sara Clavero of CAWP, have published an article in the Public Service Review: European Union - Issue 17. Entitled 'Minding the Gap', the article examines how gender demoncracy is being supported in Europe. The article can be accessed here.

A research seminar in Contemporary Irish History entitled, 'Because You're Worth It: Thekla Beere and the Value of Women in Irish Public Life' by Dr Anna Bryson will take place at 4pm on Wednesday 29 April 2009 in the IIIS Seminar Room, C6002, Level 6, Arts Building, Trinity College.

February 2009
CAWP are thrilled to announce that our Director Yvonne Galligan is now Professor Yvonne Galligan!!

Following a presentation by visiting Professor Kathleen Knight (Columbia University, New York) on 14 October 2008, entitled 'Gender Jujitsu: The Media Dilemma over US Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin', both Kathleen and CAWP Director, Prof. Yvonne Galligan were interviewed on the popular current affairs programme, Hearts & Minds about women in politics. A podcast of this is available here. It is also available in mov and flv format. CAWP would like to thank the BBC and the programme producers of Hearts & Minds for permitting us to link this section to our website.

January 2009
Johanna Sigurdardotti has been appointed the interim Prime Minister of Iceland. She is the first female PM of Iceland the first openly lesbian head of government in the world.

Morocco is currently working on a Charter for electoral conduct. In discussions the parties have confirmed their commitment to better women's representation and have agreed to the creation of all-women's shortlists.

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