Women in Political Parties

[rover]

the thread on mary hanafins comments recently got me thinking about how the parties size up in terms of female members, female councillors, candidates, how many members of their national executieves are women etc.

so far we know that 12% of fianna fail members are women.

does anyone from each of the parties have figures on that for their party?

[Dee Four]

50% of the of the PD TDs are female. Have no idea about the rest of the party.

[Gladstone]

50% of the of the PD TDs are female. Have no idea about the rest of the party.

Indeed they have a great record on this, first and only female party leader, first and only Tainiste, only party ever to have half their TDs as women, and all this acheived without athoritarian quoats, well done!

[Eddiepops]

A third of the Green candidates are women, membership to me seems about 50-50, from what I've seen at meetings, national convention, etc.

[pjb07]

labour deputy leader is feamle as is 8 of their spokes ppl

[Gregory Campbell]

Sinn Fein: 50% of its Ard Chomhairle is female

1/3 of its elected representatives in the 32 counties and Europe are female

Membership percentage is unknown however I would estimate at 35 to 40%.

[BarryW]

Here are some facts and figures for Fine Gael.

- 30% of members are women
- 30% of Officers at Branch and Constituency level are women

- 23% of all Fine Gael councillors are female (up 5% since 1999)
- 30% of FG Town and Borough Cllrs. are female (up 4% since 1999)

- There is a 50:50 gender balance on the Fine Gael Executive Council, which is directly elected by members
- The current President of Young Fine Gael is a woman (Elizabeth Munnelly)
- The Chairperson of the Fine Gael Council of Local Representatives is a woman (Cllr. Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy, Laois)

The Fine Gael Party has a dedicated Women's Group which (like most organs of the party) has seen a huge increase in actvity and membership since 2002 - more details on our website

There was a comprehensive review of the status of women in the Party by the Equality Taskforce established by Enda Kenny in 2002, and its work and recommendations have led to a big improvement in the balance of the party since then.

Above all it had to be recognised that the poor gender balance among elected representatives was something that could not be solved in one election, and was going to be a 2-3 election process. In 2003, targets were set for the 2004 Locals and Euros (which were met) and also for the 2007 General election, where we aim for:

- To increase our number of female TDs from 2 to between 6/10
- And Senators from 1 to between 5/6

Looking through our list of candidates, both of these targets are more than achieveable.

Huge progress has been made in FG. We seem to be doing far better than FF - despite the fact that they have brought in some kind of gender quotas, and have (allegedly) had a "fantastic" recruitment campaign.

It shocked even me (!) to read that after introducing quotas, and having a "successful" recruitment campaign, that female membership in FF is just 12% - which is roughly HALF of the proportion of female members that FG had during our organisational Nadir in 2001/02

[Dee Four]

increase our number of female TDs from 2 to between 6/10

In fairness, thats for the electorate to decide. What percentage of Dáil candidates will be female?

The Fine Gael Party has a dedicated Women's Group

The very notion of such a group within the PDs would sicken me.

[jady88]

Moreover we have just elected a new DublinChair for the YPD's and it was won by a women against two men. A small step in the right direction.

[Dee Four]

Moreover we have just elected a new DublinChair for the YPD's and it was won by a women against two men. A small step in the right direction.

Well, that depends. If she won because she is a woman and we want to look more diverse in front of the cameras, then it is certainly not a step in the right direction.

In this case, I think the lady in question won because she had the personality that was most appealing to the electorate and because of her vocal participation. But still, it would be prudent to be clever about what we mean by 'the right direction'.