Political Representation of Women in Northern Ireland
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9256.00057 |
| Published date | 01 February 1998 |
| Date | 01 February 1998 |
| Author | Elisabeth Porter |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Political RepresentationPolitical Representation
of Women in Northernof Women in Northern
IrelandIreland
Elisabeth Porter
Increasing the political representation of
women in Northern Ireland is part of foster-
ing political pluralism. First, the political
representation of women requires democratic
participation and a justi®cation of `women'
as a category. Second, speci®c factors of cul-
ture and the church unique to Ireland
hinder women's participation in elected poli-
tics, and there are additional factors of class,
violence, and nationalism that are peculiar
to Northern Ireland. Third, gender quotas
are successful elsewhere, but alone will not
alter the powerful resistance to feminist
change in Northern Ireland. Structures to
encourage inclusionary politics must create
spaces for political women to be transforma-
tive agents.
Politics in Northern Ireland (NI) are in a dire
mess. Despite elections to all-party talks, sub-
stantive negotiations are stymied.
1
Restoration
of the conditions whereby all elected repre-
sentatives to the `peace-talks' can engage in
political dialogue is imperative. Within such a
dicult context, nothing is more important
than achieving a workable, peaceful political
settlement. Hence it may seem to some poli-
tical scientists, politicians, or citizens of NI, a
political luxury or irrelevance to be thinking
about the political representation of women. I
maintain it is neither a luxury nor an irrele-
vance to do so. It is a crucial aspect of foster-
ing the political pluralism that is necessary in
NI. NI currently has 17 members in the West-
minster Parliament and 3 in the European
Parliament, and none of these are women. At
the May 1996 elections to the all-party talks,
15 women from 110 candidates were elected
to the general debating Forum. Given the
absence of Sinn Fe in and the withdrawal of
the Social Democratic and Labour Party from
the Forum, there are only 7 women from 72
persons participating in the Forum. Without
Sinn Fe in at the negotiation table, at the ®rst
day of peace talks on 10 June 1996 there
were 2 women from the newly formed North-
ern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) from
23 elected persons present.
This paper explores the political repre-
sentation of women in NI. I begin with a fun-
damental question of political theory, `What
does the representation of women mean?' I
argue that while the notion of `women's inter-
ests' is problematic, in the absence of
women's voices in the political arena, democ-
racy is seriously incomplete. Second, I con-
trast the situation in NI with the Republic of
Ireland (RI) where women constitute a more
conspicuous presence in politics. I contend
that there are speci®c factors unique to Ire-
land, North and South, that hinder women's
participation in elected politics, and there are
Politics (1998) 18(1) pp. 25±32
#Political Studies Association 1998. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK
and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 25
Elisabeth Porter, University of Ulster.
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