Regional WoMeN’s Caucus holds inaugural meeting and plan to change gender composition of councils

Members of the WoMeN’s (Western Midlands and Northern) Regional Caucus met with members of the Irish Women’s Parliamentary Caucus in Leinster House to discuss common areas in their programme of works.

The Parliamentary Caucus agreed to support the councillors in creating a partnership with a sector expert to contribute to policy debate on the intersection of housing and domestic violence as well as supporting quotas in local elections.

Other key areas identified in the programme of work where support would be given include the co-ordination of a special event in all 13 local authorities to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) in March 2023 which would see the gender composition of the council changed to the reverse of the current gender mix/configuration.

The female politicians also presented other items agreed in their programme of work such as the coordination of a walking audit of selected localities in the 13 local authorities over the winter in a bid to draw attention to safety concerns for women.

Cllr Carmel Brady of Cavan County Council, Chairperson of the regional caucus and Cllr Shelly Herterich Quinn of Galway County Council, Vice Chairperson led the delegation to the Chair of the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus Senator Fiona O’ Loughlin.

Cllr Brady noted that there are 290 councillors in the regional caucus catchment area of which only 45 or 16% are women and she said there was “a long way to go to see balanced decision making."

Cllr Herterich said that balance was needed at Local Authority level in order to effect real change. “So many decisions at local government level are made by men and women’s perspectives are not being heard,” she said. Cllr Herterich noted that there was only one female councillor on the Northern and Western Regional Assembly which drives the regional and economic spatial strategy for the region.

Senator Fiona O’Loughlin, Chair of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus said that the meeting with the Regional Caucus was a “coming of minds” and she complimented the work of See Her Elected and the Association of Irish Local Government for their “wonderful work” in providing the Secretariat for the Regional Caucus.

Senator O’ Loughlin noted key areas of their work included the issue of Female Gender Mutilation, Child Maintenance issues, maternity leave for councillors and work with breast feeding group Bainne Beatha.

Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick, President of the Association of Irish Local Government voiced his support for the caucus. “As a body representing the 949 elected councillors across the country, the AILG has a necessary role in the promotion of greater diversity within the local government membership especially in terms of greater participation and support for women and minority groups. Ensuring that we retain the currently elected female Councillors within our local government system is a key objective of AILG."

Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager with See Her Elected said: “The WoMeN’s Regional Caucus is an important new political institution in Irish politics and the capacity of the caucus to provide formal and informal supportive environment is a welcome addition to the incentives for more women to consider running in the local elections.”

Cllr Hazel Smyth (Westmeath) noted that having recap meetings, online voting and extended voting hours were all examples from the regional caucus of a “new way of doing politics and showed how flexibility can be a part of how council business can be conducted.”

Cllr Uruemu Adejinmi (Longford) said that the regional caucus had five main goals including supporting women to get involved and stay in politics, raising awareness of the role and work of women in politics, raising the profile of the caucus, delivering training and development to caucus membership, and advancing themes in relation to domestic violence and housing.

Cllr Mary Hoade (Galway), who previously held the role as the first female President of the Association of Irish Local Government, said that caucus had planned a major co-ordinated event in all 13 local authorities to mark International Women’s Day event in March 2023.

“The idea is to hold a meeting in the council chamber at which the gender composition of the council is changed or flipped. So, for example if elected representatives are currently 3 women and 15 men the meeting would be 15 women and 3 men. It will serve to draw attention to the imbalance in the composition of our rural councils and also raise awareness of the work and role of women in local government,” said Cllr Hoade.

Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Galway) also highlighted the fact that the caucus had organised a winter walking audit of selected localities in the 13 local authorities to highlight women’s safety.

“A collation of our observations can then be used as the basis from which to look for obvious safety measures that are missing, such as street lighting,” said Cllr Parsons.

Caption: Mairead O’ Shea, Communications Manager with See Her Elected, Cllr Carmel Brady, Chairperson of the WoMeN’s (Western Midlands and Northern) Regional Caucus, Elaine Lynch, Communications & Meetings Officer for AILG, Chair of the Parliamentary Caucus Senator Fiona O’ Loughlin, Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager with See Her Elected and Cllr Shelly Herterich Quinn, Vice Chairperson of the WoMeN’s (Western Midlands and Northern) Regional Caucus pictured at the meeting in Leinster House this week

Cllr Thomasina Connell (Laois), Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council said that 81% of members in the Regional Caucus were in favour of supporting the introduction of gender quotas for local elections. “The percentage of female councillors currently stands at 25.5.% across Ireland, however in the counties wherein our caucus members are elected, the figures are far lower.  One of the goals of the caucus is to retain currently elected female councillors and also to support more women to enter local politics in rural Ireland in the next local elections.

“Although not all our caucus members supported the introduction of gender quotas it was unanimously recognised that, in the short term, they were an important catalyst in our political process. 

“The introduction of gender quotas will accelerate progress in gender parity at local government level which will in turn increase the number of female candidates at the next General election wherein a quota of 40% female candidates will apply to all political parties,” said Cllr Connell.

The Midlands Northern and Western (MNW) Regional WoMeN’s Caucus was brought about through a collaboration between the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) and See Her Elected (SHE).  

AILG and SHE share the administrative, organisational, and secretarial support for the Regional Caucus.

Independent facilitator, Sinead Doody of Doody Facilitation and Consulting Ltd also helped with the formation of the caucus.

The MNW Regional WoMeN’s Caucus covers the following Councils (number of women Councillors): Donegal (4), Leitrim (3), Sligo (3), Mayo (2), Galway County (7), Galway City (5), Roscommon (4) Cavan (4), Monaghan (2), Longford (2), Westmeath (4), Laois (4), Offaly (1).

The gender break down of Councillors in the counties belonging to the MNW caucus is 45 women and 245 men.