Women’s representation in Irish politics and its implications for social policy

Though most in Ireland are now materially better off than 20 years ago, inequality has also been rising. Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office revealed a hidden gender dimension in this regard: the proportion of the Irish population at risk of poverty has declined, but the only people for whom it has increased are children and lone parents – the latter overwhelmingly women.
This article considers two interlinked reasons for why this is happening: low levels of women’s participation in government policy-making and legislation, and the consequent inadequacy of government responses to address the particular issues facing women in Ireland.

Women in public life

Though the situation has been improving, the situation for women participating in public life remains highly inegalitarian.

In the recently elected parliament, 14% of seats in the Dáil (lower house) are women and only 17% of seats in the Seanad (upper house). In the current Government cabinet, women hold three of the fourteen Ministries. Combining all senior and junior Ministries, this amounts to 15% of all Government portfolios, excluding the Taoiseach. Parliamentary committees play an important role in reviewing legislation and providing governmental oversight, yet despite this only 12% of representatives assigned to them are women.

Ireland did, however, mark a watershed in 1990 with the election of Mary Robinson as the eighth President of Ireland, only one of two EU countries to have elected a woman to this position. She was succeeded by Mary McAleese in 1997, and again in 2004.

Much has also changed in the backbone of any government – the Civil Service. Since the lifting of a ban on married women in 1976, 60% of workers in the Civil Service are women. But gender inequalities persist, in 2003 only 3 out of 15 departments within the Civil Service were headed by women, although this represents triple the numbers than in 1990.

The ‘economic worlds’ of women

The Irish Government’s commitment to international agreements such as the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and domestic legislation such as the Equality in the Workplace Act 2000, have contributed to many improvements in the status of women in Irish society, but more inclusive Government responses are needed.

The actual contributions women make to the Irish economy are far greater than those that are measured by official statistics. It is possible to identify four ‘economic worlds’ which women inhabit in Ireland: employment in the official economy, working in the home or in communities as carers, employed by families as domestic servants, and the underworld of human trafficking and the sex trade – these last two can often overlap.

Though official employment growth rates for women grew faster than for men during 1995-2000, and the difference in pay rates between men and women has shrunk to 16%, much of this new employment has been in low-paid and part-time jobs, and few women reach the upper layers of the job hierarchy.

Social welfare services apply rigid definitions of employment/unemployment such that women who work in the home or community cannot benefit from many of the entitlements, training and employment schemes available to those in the formal employment sector. The Irish Government agreed to recognise domestic and community work at the Beijing UN Platform for Action conference in 1995, but since a 2000 study to measure the value of unpaid work in Ireland, little progress has been made.

Other women are employed in domestic service as maids, nannies or cleaners; this sector largely involves vulnerable women who have arrived in Ireland from the developing world. Though not necessarily exploitative, this sector often overlaps with the illegal world of human trafficking, clandestine labour and the sex trade, which has been rising rapidly across the EU. Immigration advocacy groups and organisations working with people trafficked to Ireland have expressed concern at the manner in which immigration and asylum laws marginalise many women, leaving them vulnerable to abuse.

As with many other countries across Europe, women’s representation in Irish public life has increased, but it remains marginalised. It may be reasonable to assume that this skews policy-making and implementation in particular ways; by focusing almost wholly on the official economy, the full range of women’s economic activity, and particular issues affecting them, remain ignored.

TASC’s forthcoming book, ‘Are We There Yet? New Feminist Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Ireland’, edited by Ursula Barry, will be published in March 2008.

Thomas Geoghegan, TASC Policy Development Officer