The second annual Women in Media conference in Ballybunion Co Kerry in honour of the late journalist Mary Cummins heard how the equality war had not been won in the media or politics.
Former tánaiste and Labour Party leader Dick Spring said the journey for equality for women in Ireland had been “long and tough”. The last 50 to 60 years had not been along straight lines, but had been “a slow evolution” for equality.
It would have been “inconceivable” in the 1970s that a president of Ireland would be a woman, but since 1990 two women had represented Ireland on the world stage, he said.
The Catholic Church “drove the agenda of the woman’s place in the kitchen” and that was the philosophy for a long time, Mr Spring said.
Mr Spring also said it was easier for a man to be in the Dáil, even now. He was not sure gender quotas were the solution.
RTÉ’s Primetime journalist Katie Hannon said journalism when she started out was not the gender-blind industry she believed it to be.
It mattered that women achieved senior positions because it mattered that people who decided what stories to tell and how to tell them were women, and were not always men as in previous decades.
The debate today will focus on gender quotas in politics. MEP Mairead McGuinness and former minister Mary O’Rourke will be among those taking part in the debate chaired by Ms Hannon. Former editor of The Irish Times Geraldine Kennedy will later address the gathering.
Sunday’s main event is a discussion on digital media and there will also be a tribute to the late Maeve Binchy who holidayed in Ballybunion for many years.
Digression
In a digression from his main speech, Mr Spring, who had attended the State visit of President Higgins to Britain, said there were times when he wondered "why 30 years ago we couldn't have done this."
He also revealed he had attended a lunch, accompanied by president Mary Robinson, with Queen Elizabeth in the 1990s. On that occasion she spoke of her late father’s efforts after the second World War when relations between Winston Churchill and Éamon de Valera had been poor.
“I got the impression she herself wanted that too,” Mr Spring said.
The queen had added a new dimension this week, saying she wanted the royal family to attend the 1916 centenary commemorations, he added.
