Seanad debates

Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Women's Participation in Politics: Statements.

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Eoghan HarrisEoghan Harris (Independent)

I am sharing time with Senator Norris and as he is counting already, please do not interrupt me again.

I welcome the Minister of State. I have long been a great admirer of hers, both as a Deputy and Minister of State. I am delighted she has carried on her tradition of plain speaking because there is incredible hypocrisy in considering the question of the access of women to politics. Lip service is paid to the part that can be played by women and men. It is like the issue of race in America. In the old argument between culture and biology we know culture plays a major role. I remember the leader of the west Cork flying column, Tom Barry, telling me that in 1920 and 1921 the women of west Cork had been very active participants. They all met at night. If their father asked them where they were going, they would give him a hard look and say: "Movement business.". He said that in 1922 they were removed and returned to their homes again. They were gone from politics overnight. That had nothing to do with the Free State; it would have happened under either Government. It was due to the repressive, patriarchal, Roman Catholic, republican, Nationalist tradition coming down on top of them.

People do not need me to tell them they cannot participate in politics; they will do so when the stakes are high enough. My mentor, Patricia Redlich, a very wise woman, tells me that much of the time it does not strike women as being worth their while because there is so much ridiculousness, pettiness and partisanship in politics that it does not strike them as being important. She also makes the point on the nature versus nurture argument that there is a biological ceiling. How can a woman who is child-bearing, child-rearing and home-making devote the time, unless the system is user friendly? Her point to me is that the system is not user friendly; it is a system that was created for men. It needs large-scale reform to make it possible for both sexes to perform inside it. It is a matter of providing crèches and cash. However, above everything else, there is still a cultural problem in that women do not vote for women. I approach that matter with trepidation in the way a policeman approaches a domestic dispute. There is a habit among certain women of putting up ladders and denigrating their own sex. This needs to be addressed as a cultural mass information issue.

To come to the crunch, I strongly believe in having quotas. Many years ago I had a long conversation with a great German feminist, Ulla Stöckel, who grew up with Leni Riefenstahl. We talked about the problems of German women in gaining access to the film business, as well as politics. She said that, given that they had played second fiddle for thousands of years, it was not going to happen in a hurry. If we leave it to nature, it will not happen in a hurry. It may never happen or will happen over centuries. There needs to be hard intervention, as there was in the American race issue which, after initial cynicism, has transformed academe in America for the better. The women who come through the political system here are the most formidable group. It is not accidental; they have been through the Darwinian selection process. To reach where the Minister of State, Deputy White, has reached one has run through a gauntlet involving grit and courage, about which most men would not have a clue. We have a male locker-room macho club which is in need of reform. While we are waiting for that to happen, I strongly support the introduction of quotas.

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