by Kate Heaney
THE prospect of increasing the number of female council members in next year’s local elections faces a number of hurdles, according to sitting female councillors in Donegal.
Despite funding being made available by government to increase the female quotas through the regional caucuses, which have been working to educate and train aspiring female politicians, it is still an uphill struggle.
There are just four female councillors out of the 37 serving members in Donegal at present– Cllr Rena Donaghey of Fianna Fáil has been a public representative for 30 years, Cllr Marie Therese Gallagher, pictured below, of Sinn Féin for 17 years, Cllr Niamh Kennedy, Independent for nine years and Fianna Fáil’s Noreen McGarvey was elected in the last local elections in 2019.
This week the Donegal news spoke to three of the four female councillors about tackling gender imbalance on local authorities.
All three enjoy their roles but see a huge change because of the platform social media provides for abuse. On the up side representing individuals and local communities to achieve their goals brings huge satisfaction to the job.
In 2019, 16 women stood as candidates for the local elections in Donegal with just four becoming councillors.
Cllr Kennedy explained the reason Donegal County Council did not seek funding from central government this year under the gender and ability equality for local elections 2024, was because they are still using funding granted in 2019 and 2021.
DCC contribute and assist the regional women’s caucus to encourage more female candidates.
“I think a lot of females look at council and see a male dominated forum. I think it is easier if you are independent. The party systems tend to preserve the status quo and don’t want to lose any male councillors in order to parachute in a female candidate.
“Time will tell. I don’t know if many women out there have the appetite for it. If they have not expressed an interest at this stage, time is short to build a profile,” she added.
The most rewarding aspect is in community development, working together with people and seeing a community achieve their goals.
Cllr Gallagher explained that the job was 99 per cent of the time helping people sorting problems and that is very rewarding.
“I imagine anyone looking on at the mayhem in council meetings in recent months, who may have been thinking about putting their name forward, would have been put off.”
She acknowledged that to look at Donegal County Council it is very male dominated and visually, sometimes it may appear as an arena.
However, she stressed that at the end of the day you can achieve a lot with people’s lives being changed for the better as a result.
“I think a lot more women would go for the job if they see the benefit in their local communities,” she added.
Cllr Donaghey stressed that ‘See her Elected’ regional caucus is working hard to educate potential councillors and provide training for aspiring female politicians.
While she acknowledged that politics is “not a family friendly business” it has improved over her time there with maternity benefits and the fact many men are now willing to share more of the domestic roles.
“It is definitely not a nine to five job. It’s more like a 7.30am to midnight and it includes Saturdays and Sundays.
“We see the leading role women in so many of our community groups play however, in comparison the comhairle ceantairs of the parties are very male dominated and that can be intimidating for some women. The other element of getting into local politics is the financial cost unless you have a party machine behind you to help.
“I would love to see more women elected to council. I think by our nature we are more thorough and understand women’s problems better.
We are far behind other countries when we look at their gender balance in politics,” she added.
‘See Her Elected’ will hold free training sessions in January and February of next year in Longford and women from all over Ireland are invited. For further information go to their website on https://www.seeherelected.ie/
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