See Her Elected supporting women in rural counties like Longford to become councillors

Continuing that success, See Her Elected will provide a free ‘Introduction to Politics’ course beginning on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 while a new series of Foundation workshops will also take place from Monday, January 23, 2023.

Through the SHESchool model, See Her Elected provides free online community education to women in their homes, and a clear pathway for women taking them from learning about local government through every practicality of running for local office.

The first online SHESchool began in May 2020 with a total of 46 women registered. From that modest base, SHE continues to gain traction and to date has delivered training to over 800 women from every county in Ireland.

Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager with See Her Elected explained that the entry point for women into See Her Election is through the SHESchool Introduction to Politics which aims to inform and demystify active citizenship, local government, and the day-to-day job of being a councillor.

“The responsive nature of SHESchool leads to complementary political education workshops exactly matching the gaps in knowledge women themselves identify as barriers to running. Recent examples include hearing directly from councillors on balancing family life with council work (March 2022), confidence building (May 2022), and demystifying economic concepts to better understand fiscal policy and public expenditure (April 2022).”

The organisation has also published the ‘See Her Elected Guide to Running in the 2024 Local Elections’ and this publication is supported by a comprehensive series of workshops.

“We now have a well-defined and comprehensive SHE Pathway taking women from entry level political knowledge into laying the foundations of their candidacy, followed by building their strategies.

“SHE’s singular focus on local elections in rural constituencies and providing that clear pathway from entry level political knowledge to election campaign strategy sets us apart. The innovative nature of SHE was recognised by juries across Europe judging the project as the winner of the prestigious Innovation in Politics Award (Democracy category) in December 2021. This award, and the publication in November of 2021 of the See Her Elected Guide have been instrumental in expanding the reach of SHE throughout Ireland and has attracted growing international interest,” said Dr Maher.

2022 has been an extremely busy year for See Her Elected as over 800 women throughout Ireland have registered for various workshops including the Introduction to Politics, Foundation and Strategy workshops. The Introduction to Politics course starting on January 11, is for anyone who wants to start to build up a bit of knowledge about what politics is and how politics works. The classes will run twice on each date in a bid to fit into day-to-day life with a morning option from 10-11.30am and an evening option from 7.30-9p.m.

The Foundation workshop beginning on January 23 is for any woman who is considering running for local election in 2024 or indeed any woman who wants to become part of a campaign team to help another woman to get elected.

This course examines key issues and building your profile; the toolbox: maps & stats (analytical work on voting patterns in your local electoral area while it also examines whether you should run for a party or Independent as well as tips for building your team.

On completion, you will be invited to join the Strategy Series which examines canvassing, campaign, and communications strategy.

In the past year, See Her Elected has also built on successful collaborations with County Councils throughout Ireland as a way of bringing women on to the SHE pathway to the 2024 local elections. Examples include work with Westmeath County Council to write ‘A More Inclusive Politics for Westmeath’ publication, which was launched in June 2022 by Minister Peter Burke.

See Her Elected also worked with Clare County Council to organise their ‘Promoting Gender Equality & Diversity in Local Government ‘conference and design and deliver their pathway into politics from the conference with a bespoke Introduction to Politics for Women in Clare, designed using Clare specific data.

The organisation also worked with Louth County Council to deliver a seminar aimed at increasing the diversity of women in Local Government which included panel discussions with local and national politicians as well as speakers from diverse groups.

The organisation has also forged links with political parties by providing communication strategy workshops to their internal women’s networks.

This acts as a gateway directly from political parties into the SHE Foundation and Strategy workshops, with significant interest already apparent from women interested in the See Her Elected Guide and joining the next series of workshops.

SHE has also collaborated with the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) to establish a regional caucus for 13 local authorities from across the Western, Midlands and Northern regions of the county (the WoMeN’s Regional Caucus). The caucus recently adopted their Programme of Work with SHE and AILG jointly providing secretariat services.

Current councillors, especially those co-opted into seats after the 2020 General Election regularly participate in SHESchool and the work with the party women’s networks has grown the number of women councillors within SHESchool.

Mairead O’ Shea, Communications Manager with See Her Elected explained that Voter Education is also part of See Her Elected’s work.

“One of the Foundation Series workshops focuses on analysing voting patterns in potential candidate’s local electoral areas. It was apparent that there was a general lack of understanding about PRSTV and the importance of transfers to electoral success. We scripted and designed a mixed media (animation and pieces to camera) video to explain how the PRSTV voting system works and we are now in the post production stage. We anticipate the video will be an extraordinary educational resource for public awareness around voting and gender equality in political representation,” said Ms O’Shea.

The Communications Manager also pointed out that 2022 had witnessed the commencement of a project for secondary schools whereby See Her Elected provides presentations for TY, 5th and 6th year students.

“Many of these students will be 18 and eligible to vote in 2024. Encouraging them and their families to register to vote, explaining why the extensive over-representation of men and overall lack of diversity in their counties is problematic, and encouraging them to consider becoming candidates supports the core SHE work programme.

"In the summer term, 2022 we visited five secondary schools and subsequent strong local media coverage has added to SHE’s rural reach,” said Ms O’Shea.

Anyone interested in joining the Introduction to Politics Course on January 11 or the Foundation workshops beginning on January 23 is asked to email info@seeherelected.ie or ring 086 0320455 to register their interest.

SHE is a joint initiative between 50:50 Northwest and Longford Women’s Link. The project is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.