Labour Front Bench has more women than FF and FG do

Issued : Thursday 20 September, 2007

All political parties have now revealed their Front Benches.

Of the Fianna Fail Ministers and Ministers of State 4 out of 31 are women (12.9%). Of the Fine Gael Front Bench 2 out of 18 are women (11%). Labour's Eamon Gilmore included all Labour TDs in his Front Bench as he wanted to use all the talent at his disposal. Labour's Front Bench includes 7 women out of 20 (35% women).

Labour continues to be the most equal and inclusive political party by far. Not only has Eamon Gilmore more women to choose from than other parties do, he also trusts them to do a good job. Joan Burton in Finance, Jan O'Sullivan in Health and Liz McManus in Communications are all in senior positions. Labour's women are not given mickey mouse positions, there are no token women in Labour.

Nearly 90% of FF and FG frontbench are men. Women clearly do not rate very well in the two biggest political parties. With only a handful of women TDs they understandably find it difficult to promote women, leaving the country with hardly any decision-makers who might have a women's perspective.

Do FF and FG not want women, or do the women not want them? If parties with the highest membership and highest number of elected representatives cannot produce a Front Bench with more than a couple of women we should ask why. We should all demand that they change their ways to include more women.

Promotion of women starts when election candidates are selected. Measures can be put in place to make sure that members and the electorate have more choice than just men in suits. FF and FG simply cannot increase the number of Front Bench women because they haven't got enough women.

Labour is leading the way. Not only does Labour put forward women candidates, Labour manages to get women elected and once elected gives them a say.