The Northern Ireland local elections May 2019 – a gender analysis…

Elections to 11 local councils took place in Northern Ireland on Thursday 2 May 2019. Parties fielded 819 candidates in all. Since the previous local elections in 2014, public debates had raged over social issues such as marriage equality and abortion rights. Women’s empowerment was a regular theme that focused on the relative absence of women in political, economic and social decision-making. In this election, women comprised just 27.5% of candidates (Table 1). Table 1: Candidates by party, 2019 (Number, …

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Leaning in. The quiet revolution.

As International Women’s Day draws to a close for 2017, I’ve been reflecting on why it is necessary to have such a day. It is simple. International Women’s Day (IWD) is about acknowledging that in 2017, women still face discrimination and are under represented in many aspects of public life. Discrimination comes in many guises. For example, from the blatant sacking and sidelining of women who are pregnant, to everyday sexism, such as using derogatory language which subtly undermines women. …

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Hanna: International Women’s Day is an anniversary to mark the contribution, struggles and victories of women…let’s not lose site of it as a political event or of the road left to travel.

Continuing our series of articles, SDLP Councillor for Balmoral, Claire Hanna writes for us about her experiences and the barriers facing women in society today International Women’s Day brings annual soul searching about the lack of women in politics, which is both a symptom and cause of our dysfunctional politics. Evidence presented by the Economist newspaper shows that where legislatures have more women, they spend more on public services, bring forward more progressive legislation and have more balanced participation in …

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At the current rate of progress, gender equality of MLAs at Stormont will only take another 65 years

Bronagh Hinds’ chapter of Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict: The Impact of Devolution and Cross-Border Cooperation [reviewed yesterday] examines women’s political participation points to limited progress in addressing the gender balance of political institutions. The proportion of councillors who are female rose to 24 per cent in 2011 from 14 per cent in 2000. Sounds good. But of the 14 opportunities for co-option in the NI Assembly between 2007 and 2012 2010 “to replace MLAs who had resigned or …

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