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Next week, as the public take to the polls for the 2024 General Election, they will have a record number of women candidates to choose from.
246 women are running for seats across 43 constituencies, representing a 52% increase on the last election in 2020.
“It’s great, it means that voters have never had more choice,” says Katie Deegan, Communications Coordinator with Women for Election.
Speaking to Róisín Ingle on The Irish Times Women’s Podcast, Deegan says that despite the barriers that keep women from entering politics, “what’s really important is that more women than ever want to run”.
Although this increase in female participation will come as a win for Women for Election, Deegan maintains that Ireland’s history of “putting women aside” should not be forgotten.
“We’ve had 1,345 people elected to the Daíl and only 131 of them have been women, in the last 100 or so years”.
“21 women have ever been in cabinet, the first being Countess Markievicz, the first in Europe, but it took us almost 60 years to appoint another one. We’re trying to undo 100 years of a democracy that was built by men for men and actively designed women out”.
Also in this episode, we’re examining the promises put forward by each party in their manifestos regarding women. What has been said about women’s healthcare, the childcare crisis, or how to address record levels of domestic violence? And why have women’s issues not featured more prominently in the campaign?
In 2023, Women’s Aid recorded over 40,000 disclosures of domestic abuse, the highest level ever documented in the organisation’s 50-year history. Yet, there was no mention of the issue in the two-hour long party leaders debate on Monday night.
Orla O’Connor, Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) joins Róisín Ingle to discuss the issues and NWCI’s own election manifesto for women.
You can listen back to this discussion in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
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