Last Thursday, 2 February 2012, something historic happened: there were more women in the Seanad than it could fit. The Dáil audio-visual room was packed with them, and the lobby too – anywhere you looked there were women – what was going on?! History, that’s what. At 11.50 Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local […]
Last Friday’s sell-out conference on women’s participation in politics, the brainchild of Minister Kathleen Lynch, took as is its title a question: ‘How to elect more women?’ Addressing a packed hall (and an ante-room where those that missed the first batch of tickets watched proceedings on a screen) speakers – from at home and abroad […]
‘Blue Monday’, the third Monday in January is considered to be the most depressing day of the year: Christmas is a distant memory, New Year’s resolutions are tedious to keep, the weather is dreary and money is tight after the holiday splurge. Not the kind of day you would expect women out in droves to […]
Last Friday, the Irish Government published draft legislation, which, if passed by Government, will introduce gender quotas in advance of the next general election. Under the legislation, parties that fail to run 30% female candidates will have their funding halved, rising to 40% in seven years. This move has been much anticipated and warmly welcomed. It is an […]
Well, we did it! We won. And we can hardly believe it. We know just how important getting more women elected is; and how much it means to everyone we’ve met and worked with over the past couple of years, but what we didn’t know was whether we could convince Social Entrepreneurs Ireland that this […]
When the guys in Social Entrepreneurs Ireland suggested a blog to us here in ‘Women for Election’, we hopped! “Be careful” we warned, asking women to speak about women, sure they might never stop So, join us as we take you through our journey as a finalist in the incredible Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Social Impact […]
“They say that ‘seeing is believing’, but if Social Entrepreneurs Ireland believed that, we wouldn’t be where we are now, would we? More like ‘not seeing is believing’. Well, that’s how it was for us: the dearth of women in Irish politics, election after election, and the lazy sense that we should just live with […]
The reasons why we have so few women in politics are well known and well rehearsed – the 5 Cs: cash, culture, childcare, candidate selection and confidence. But there is something else too, something that is easy to address if we are all conscious of it: women don’t run for elected office because no one […]
“Only three” I hear you cry! Yes we often read about the top 10 things we should do to change our lives, or the top 5 changes we can make to be more successful. Well Women for Election understand that you are busy and we aren’t going to be that demanding! We have 3 suggestions […]