For almost 10 years I recruited young people to a political party. The number of young men involved was always higher than women. Try as I might to encourage women and to change how we projected the brand, to move beyond the us and them of politics, it was always harder to get young women to stand for election.
The recent criticisms of Mary Mitchell O’Connor, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, are not going to do much to help. Regardless of whether the criticism of her performance was justified, the inevitable questions have been raised as to whether or not she is being held to a different set of standards than her male colleagues.
The paradox is, however, that there has never been a better time for women to enter politics and change things for the better.
Much of the commentary on why female participation in politics is so low lists working conditions and childcare as barriers to entry. But the women I worked with were in the pre-quota days and were too young to list childcare and unsociable working hours as deterrents to a career in politics.
Many hours of observation has led me to conclude that women’s reluctance to participate in politics is more deeply rooted in the human condition and the difference between gender than working hours.
Men and women are different. For example, in the midst of political summer schools, conferences and branch meetings, what would begin as an adult discussion would suddenly become what women would describe as a “row” and what young men considered “a bit of craic”.
The row would begin. The guys’ eyes would dart around, who would get involved, how can we keep this going? The increasing adrenaline levels were palpable. The young women, however, would watch, think, look bored, possibly leave, possibly get involved.
Confrontation
Not all women, of course, avoid confrontation but it seemed to me a large majority did and this was one of the things shutting them out of politics. Fast forward to gender quotas which came into effect before the last election. Political parties had to field at least 30 per cent male and 30 per cent female candidates if they wanted to get State funding. The key element of this, avoidance of the party selection convention process with female candidates imposed by party headquarters, is theoretically a great way to get women on the pitch having avoided, arguably, the most vicious element of politics.
Ultimately, it does not remove the confrontational or tribal elements from politics. Women still face the bear pit of the Dáil. They attend public meetings where they are open to criticism often quite aggressively delivered. Family life is potentially open to scrutiny, protesters, social media trolling and many other modern ways of expressing displeasure are targeted at politicians.
One could argue that if you don’t like all that then don’t go into politics. Exactly. Women vote with their feet and so they don’t bother. They are no less interested in politics than their male counterparts, they just react differently to the confrontational elements that are part and parcel of how our political system has evolved.
Smokescreen
This is not another call for new politics. But the temporary smokescreen of the confidence and supply agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the Dáil allows for a small chink of light. A budget day with fewer tribal hecklers verged on the civilised, the more of that the better.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance's (IIDEA) publication Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers, provides some advice to female parliamentarians. They advocate challenging the "institutional masculinity" by implementing a "rules strategy" with "three key areas: learning the rules, using the rules and changing the rules".
New politics potentially gives female parliamentarians the break they needed. Now is the time to change the rules. To use the new committee system to reduce the need for ridiculous late-night sittings. To leverage the strengthening women’s caucus in Leinster House to garner more cross-party agreement outside of the Dáil chamber.
If women insist by way of parliamentary party meetings that heckling stop we may achieve some progress in this Dáil. If women parliamentarians put aside partisan political concerns they are in a position to push for reform that will change the gender balance considerably. Susie O’Connor is a business consultant. She formerly worked as a government adviser and chief executive of Young Fine Gael