Politics

Just 275 of 1,127 candidates declared for local elections so far are women

Kerry and Limerick emerge as black spots for women in politics

Fianna Fáil have the lowest percentage, with just 53 women candidates alongside 299 males, while Fine Gael are only slightly better – with 73 female candidates out of a total of 329. Photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times
Fianna Fáil have the lowest percentage, with just 53 women candidates alongside 299 males, while Fine Gael are only slightly better – with 73 female candidates out of a total of 329. Photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times
Anne Lucey
Fri Jan 24 2014 - 01:00

With the line-up nearly completed ahead of the local elections in May – when 949 seats are up for grabs in 137 electoral areas – Kerry and Limerick have emerged as gender equality black spots.

So far, just six women are in the running in Kerry for membership of the 33-member council, as opposed to 38 men.

Only 18 per cent of candidates in Mayo are women, while Limerick fares even worse, where there are 40 seats.

Gender black spot
"Limerick is also a gender black spot, 54 men and just nine women, and three of the women are from the Anti-Austerity Alliance," said Jennifer Kitson, a researcher with Women for Politics, a non-partisan organisation promoting balance in public representation. Countrywide, just 275 of the 1,127 candidates (24 per cent) declared so far are women.Fianna Fáil have the lowest percentage, with just 53 women candidates alongside 299 males – just under 18 per cent – while Fine Gael are only slightly better – with 73 female candidates out of a total of 329 (22 per cent).

Highest proportions
Nationally, left-wing parties have the highest proportion of female candidates, though no party has 50 per cent female candidates.

Fianna Fáil have yet to finalise decisions about adding candidates in a small number of regions – including in Kerry, where sitting councillor Anne McEllistrim is seeking to have her name added alongside three male Fianna Fáil candidates in the Killarney area.

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Killarney is one of 26 areas nationally in which no female is currently running in the elections. As of last weekend, the parties with the greatest gender balance are the smaller left-wing parties – People Before Profit Alliance (45 per cent), the Anti-Austerity Alliance (37 per cent).

Of the bigger parties, just under a third of the 131 Labour candidates are women, and similarly 46 of Sinn Féin's 154 candidates are women.

The situation in Dublin contrasts starkly with many other areas, where 35.7 per cent of the candidates (103 out of 228) seeking one of the 183 seats are female.

While just under a quarter of candidates in Cork are female, Cork City North Central and Cork City North West do not have a female candidate.