Minister ‘horrified’ at language used about women in US election

The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, and his appointment of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, hung over a major conference on domestic violence that opened Monday in Dublin.

Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald described herself as horrified and disturbed at much of what she saw and heard during Mr Trump's election campaign.

During the campaign taped evidence emerged of Mr Trump’s unsought and unwanted physical advances on women, his attitude towards sex with them and his verbal abuse of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, whom he characterised as a “nasty woman”.

"I am so horrified at the language we've heard about women," Ms Fitzgerald told a conference, Making Ireland the Safest Country in the World, organised by Safe Ireland, the non-governmental organisation that campaigns on issues related to gender-based violence against women and children.

Ms Fitzgerald wondered what “the underbelly of misogyny” that had been exposed during the campaign said about American society, about women there and the position of women internationally.

“I’m really disturbed by so much of what I’ve seen and heard in the last number of weeks in the American election.”

Talking to a packed Round Room of Dublin's Mansion House, the singer Hozier (Andrew Hozier Byrne) told interviewer Claire Byrne that he did not see the Trump administration prioritising gender based violence in light of the appointment of Steve Bannon as Mr Trump's chief strategist.

Mr Bannon is chairman of Breitbart News, a website that gives voice to extreme right wing, racist and white supremacist views. Mr Bannon was charged 20 years ago – and was acquitted – with perpetrating domestic violence against his former wife. His violent behaviour was cited, however, in the then Mrs Bannon’s divorce papers.

“With the appointment of Steve Bannon for strategy, I don’t think domestic violence will be too high up on the list [of Mr Trump’s priorities],” said Hozier.

The singer performed Cherry Wine, his song about domestic violence and psychological abuse inflicted by a man on his female partner and which has been dramatised in a video starring Saoirse Ronan.

“It’s important now more than ever, on a grassroots basis, the most powerful man on the planet was elected after talking and joking in a bragging context about sexual abuse towards women and was elected still,” said the singer. “I think it’s an uphill struggle.”

Ms Fitzgerald said that a proposed domestic violence bill, to be published this Dáil term, aimed to make the criminal justice system more victim-centred.

“We are going to make it easier for victims to come forward, to give their evidence, to feel supported, to feel safe and secure after they have given their evidence,” she said.

“We’ve also got to look at the bail laws and make sure that people are not left at risk because people have been given bail where’s there’s a history of violence and a history of abuse.”

She confirmed – to loud applause – that she favoured criminalising the purchasers of sex. She argued that without greater female representation in politics, gender issues would remain.

“How can we be satisfied when there’s 22 per cent of women in the Dáil and Senate in 2016,” she asked. “We have to be so impatient about that. . . Having a critical mass of women in politics, in decision making, that makes the difference.”

During a panel discussion, other speakers, including Jacinta Carey who runs a safe house for women in Kildare, Mags Hacskaylo who is behind an Washington DC-based organisation named Dash (District Alliance for Safe Houses), Niamh Wilson of Women's Aid and Catriona Gleeson, Safe Ireland chief executive, all spoke about the need to break the barrier of silence surrounding domestic abuse and challenge casual sexism in everyday life.

Ms Carey mentioned the case of Clodagh Hawe, the Cavan woman murdered by her husband Alan, who also killed their two children, and the paucity of reporting about her in the days immediately after what he did.

She references a comment by Hillary Clinton that “the history of women is a history of silence”.

“Women aren’t silent,” said Ms Carey. “The women who are experiencing domestic violence have never been silent. There are women up and down this country telling their stories, they are telling their stories to the social worker; they are telling their story to the local priest, to their parents, to their neighbours, to their friends. I believe the silence begins with us.”

Lynn Rosenthal, a former advisor on domestic violence to outgoing US vice president Joe Biden, told a story about attending a sailing course in which the instructor unconsciously had men persistently in leading roles.

Querying him about this, he apologise and in the next session with his class referred to the boat’s captain, adding “whoever he or she may be”.

A voice spoke up from the class, said Ms Rosenthal, saying “my wife will never be the captain”.

“And that guy has just been elected president of the United States,” said Ms Rosenthal, adding “You are not the future. You are the last gasp of a dying breed.”