WHEN NASA DECIDED to send women into space, it became quite obvious very quickly that Houston had a problem. Spacesuits had been designed for men and not women.
The same design bias has shown up in many other spheres– crash test dummies, household tools, smartphones and even office space have been designed with men’s hands and bodies as a template.
The researcher Caroline Criado Perez has argued that such design bias may not generally be malicious, or even deliberate, but simply the product of a way of thinking that has been around for millennia; with the experience and perspective of men used as a universal template.
Lack of representation
I would argue that we have had a design bias in Irish politics for far too long. Indeed, the figures speak for themselves. Women, half our population, are represented by one in four politicians. Only 25% of councillors are women while women take up a mere 23% of Dáil seats.
For decades, the political system was a heavily male-dominated arena with many female politicians only backed by the mainstream when a family member passed away or left politics. There were of course many notable and trailblazing exceptions to this rule, but it would be fair to say that there were few role models for budding female politicians to look up to in this State during much of the 20th century and when opportunities arose, talented women were often overlooked or not considered due to the prevalent culture.
As the recent 20×20 campaign for women in sports highlighted – ‘if she can’t see it, she can’t be it’.
Similarly, in politics, the more role models we can provide, the more women we can encourage to participate. As Minister of State for Planning and Local Government, I am committed to examining the obstacles to such participation at local level and to supporting measures and actions to tackle the problem.
Real change
In our Programme for Government, we promised to attract more diverse candidates into local government, so our chambers begin to reflect the society they seek to serve. As we approach the 2024 Local Elections, I am adamant that we absolutely must increase our female representation in that election.
As we saw with gender quotas for the Dáil, when you support women to get onto the ballot paper, you see that the electorate vote for them. To ensure we have greater representation at local level, I have been happy to ensure record funding has been allocated to organisations like Women for Election and See Her Elected as well as providing support to all the main political parties to support diverse candidates and promote women and those from marginalised backgrounds as local election candidates.
However, money and support alone won’t clear all the obstacles. We also have to look at the design issues.
It’s a stark fact of life that the work of a politician does not represent an attractive lifestyle for many women. We cannot engage more women in a system that does not support them to stay there. The hours, the workload, the pressure and the pay mean that for many, being a local councillor is not an appealing career choice.
While improvements have been made to the pay in recent months, it remains the case that for women who are considering starting or expanding their families, there is a complete absence of maternity leave or support.
As Councillors are office-holders and not employees, employment rights simply do not exist for them. At present, a woman can take a period away from the role if her colleagues on the council vote to agree to this.
In the 21st century, that a woman would have to ask permission from her peers, predominantly male, to facilitate her having children is astounding to me, and completely intolerable I am now changing this practice.
Last year, I asked a group of female councillors from across the political and geographical divide to come together to consider maternity leave and related issues. Informed by my work with this cross-party group, I want local female councillors to have a new choice:
A substitute option for councillors who want to access full maternity leave in the same way as many PAYE workers do; 26 weeks paid with the further option of 14 weeks unpaid. Councillors can now select a candidate to step in for them, while they are on leave on full pay. This addresses the issue of women feeling pressure to be present for important votes or debates, or representing their community at meetings.
Alternatively, where a councillor may not want to fully step back for the duration of leave, I am bringing in new regulations which will provide administrative support. A councillor can employ someone to assist with their work and this will be covered by a secretarial allowance paid weekly. This was something which the subgroup felt would be very welcome and utilised by women across the board.
The drafting of the Bill is now underway, and I hope to have legislation published ahead of the Summer recess. So far, there has been great cross-party support and I am hopeful that my colleagues from all parties will support the legislation and ensure a speedy passage.
I am not under the illusion that maternity leave will be the magic bullet to reform our local government system. In terms of improving the political environment for more diverse political representation, there are many more issues we need to tackle – for example, the scourge of online abuse which tends to disproportionately target women and minorities.
We need to design a better political system to ensure we have the most diverse set of politicians necessary to reflect the people we are. A diverse political population means we draw on a greater pool of talent, avoid blind spots and group think and make the best possible decisions on behalf of those whose lives we seek to improve.
Peter Burke is Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning. He is a Fine Gael TD for Longford-Westmeath.
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