Women in political life: the case of the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the sites of potential resistance to women's full participation in political life in the Republic of Ireland. The Irish case is an interesting one since the country has various features, for example its PR-STV system, which according to the extensive literature on women's underrepresentation should facilitate women's entry into parliament. Despite this, women's representation in the Irish parliament has stagnated with its current high of 22.2 percent resulting from the imposition of a 30 percent legislative gender quota for candidates, first introduced at the 2016 general election. A candidate gender quota increases the share of women on the ballot but fails to target other potential obstacles to women's election and subsequent progression within the parliament. This dissertation is therefore concerned with what happens to women after they have put themselves forward as candidates. Using data from the Local Election Candidate Study (2014) and Irish Comparative Candidates Survey (2016), Chapter Two investigates whether the campaign experience is gendered. Chapter Three uses a survey experiment to test for the presence of direct or indirect voter bias against female candidates during the 2016 general election campaign. Chapters Four and Five employ an original dataset containing details of the political careers of parliamentarians elected to the Irish lower house, Dáil Éireann, between 1977 and 2016. Chapter Four tests whether parties sideline their female legislators either by failing to promote them in general or, when they are promoted, by failing to promote them to higher positions. It also tests whether women spend longer in parliament prior to being promoted. Chapter Five investigates whether the content of the promotions that deputies receive differs according to gender, asking whether women are more likely to be allocated portfolios that correspond to areas that are traditionally thought of as domains of female competence.