Gender Balance

THE LOCAL elections have not been particularly notable in terms of the numbers of women elected.

Two county councils, Clare and Wicklow, and Waterford City Council have returned just one woman each. This was out of 32 seats in Clare, 24 in Wicklow and 15 at Waterford City Council.

Among the highest returns in terms of numbers of women elected were Fingal County Council with eight out of 24, and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown with eight out of 28. South Dublin County Council returned six women out of a 26-seat chamber. Kilkenny County Council returned eight women out of 26 vacancies.

As some seats were still being contested yesterday, the gender breakdown across the State or by parties could not be definitively established. However, none of the local authorities whose results were in, featured more then eight women.

The successful candidate on Clare County Council, Patricia McCarthy, said she was disappointed the female representation on the council had been halved. The result meant “50 per cent of the population is relying one one person – 50 per cent is not represented by gender”.

Dr Eileen Connolly of the school of law and government at Dublin City University said she believed an unattractive association between local government and doubtful practices was responsible for a lack of enthusiasm among women.

The inclusion of women in politics had not progressed in Ireland and the levels of representation in the national assembly was now lower than Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Connolly said Spain had been in a similar position to Ireland – with about 13 per cent of representatives being women – about a decade ago. But that country had moved ahead with the inclusion of women while Ireland had not.

She said she is planning a research project to ascertain the reason for the low levels of participation by women.