Professor Yvonne Galligan:

Absolutely. What we need to do is perhaps speak about gender quotas in a slightly different way. They are seen as being instruments that prefer individual women over individual men who feel that they are more deserving of the position. What we are tackling in that area is cultural perceptions of women's and men's roles. When we implement gender quotas, we are going against the grain of our culture, which subconsciously has said that women have to take a back place. Gender quotas are designed to break the cultural norm that we have buried very deeply in our subconscious. Deputy Cronin is quite right that this offers an entry. It offers the first rung on the ladder. Then it is up to a female candidate to prove that she can get elected. That is the test: if one gets elected. Often then when the individual is elected, there is never a question of whether they were a candidate that came through a quota mechanism or any other mechanism. It is an interventionist measure. Because politics has got to do with power, it is always going to be a fraught question. My argument is that parties are right to stick to their guns and reassure women who are elected through processes of this kind that it is not something that is special for them, that it is helping them to redress the historical and institutional biases against women over a long period and that this is only a way of trying to level the playing field.

The other point about the Minister for Justice and others is that they are very important role models for all women and men in society as a whole because they are normalising the fact that being a mother or a parent is a normal part of life and goes on irrespective of one's occupation or activity in life. That is a very important message to send out. In speaking of my own experience in the workplace and dealing with this issue, which relates to another recommendation, there is often a hesitancy still among women in the workplace to come forward to their line managers or workplace colleagues to say that they are pregnant and they are going to need time off work. That is a great pity in this day and age when at any time we should be celebrating motherhood and parenthood more generally. They are very important role models in that regard.