JIM JACKMAN,
Sir, - Can you imagine an Irish rugby team consisting of two players playing against a French team of 15 players? These are the same odds that female politicians take on when representing gender-related issues in Dáil Éireann, and that's on a good day.
Irish people themselves choose those odds. Over 50 per cent of the population are represented by 13 per cent of the politicians in Dáil Éireann.
I remember working as an outside broadcast technician for RTÉ in 1996 at Dublin Castle. Talks were taking place with the various interested parties in an effort which resulted in the Good Friday Agreement. Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the different Unionist parties, the Irish and British governments were present. There was a huge international media presence and the different sides regularly came out and gave "soundbites" to the media. The ensuing melée was like watching a bit of meat being thrown into a fish bowl full of piranha.
One day I happened to sit in at a talk given by the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. There were very few people present and just a token media presence. I was stunned by what I was hearing. There were no hard positions being taken and their rhetoric was gentle, calm and persuasive. I left the room feeling that if these ladies were given a real ear and listened to, peace might have come more quickly to Northern Ireland then it did.
The role of women in decision-making is fundamental to the transformation of society and it is significant that most socially advanced societies are those in which women have the greatest role in national decision-making, as the following percentages of women parliamentarians show: Sweden, 42.7 per cent; Denmark, 37.4 per cent; Finland, 37 per cent; Norway, 36.4 per cent; Netherlands, 36 per cent; New Zealand, 29.2 per cent;the US, 13 per cent, Ireland 13 per cent.
The childcare support systems in the countries with high percentages leave our own in the dark ages and, lest we need reminding, the way we treat our children now has a major impact on all our futures.
I recent years I have supported and canvassed for two female politicians, from different political parties. What has impressed me most about them is their commitment, focus, energy, drive and enthusiasm. In the next couple of months I would ask people to ask themselves: "Why not vote for a woman?" In the words of Mary Robinson, " I look forward to the day when women's participation in all levels of government will be an unremarkable feature of public life." - Yours, etc., JIM JACKMAN, Park Drive Court, Castleknock, Dublin 15.