Women in rural locations within County Westmeath and the Midlands region who are preparing for the 2024 local elections have made their views on safe participation in public life known via the See Her Elected organisation to a Task Force established by the Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Séan Ó Fearghaíl, and the Cathaoirleach, Senator Jerry Buttimer in Leinster House.
Women want to see political parties be much more proactive at stamping out abuse and harassment that happens within the setting of party meetings or which involves party members. Strong scepticism at the commitment of social media platforms to the safety of those in public life was also expressed, and women have asked the Task Force to tackle this. Ideas that they would like to see considered are a central point of contact to call as and when harassment and abuse unfolds, and they question why home addresses are required on nomination papers.
See Her Elected (SHE ), the award-winning Government funded programme to support women in rural constituencies to become county councillors surveyed women attending their election workshops as part of their preparation for the 2024 local elections. Incidences of abuse were catalogued by 52%, with 48% never having encountered abuse or harassment.
The threat of abuse doesn’t emerge as the absolute deterrent to women running in the local elections that might be expected. Judging perpetrators as people who consider that women have no place in politics, their actions can often spur women on.
Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager with See Her Elected, explained that women “often voice an opinion in SHE election workshops that if they allow such people to put them off running, nothing will ever change”.
The See Her Elected submission to the Task Force provides a unique insight into what women in rural Ireland encounter once they make their political ambitions known. Much of what goes on can be insidious in nature and hard for women to constantly call out such as a “complete refusal to use my proper name on multiple occasions or bypassing or trivialising my contribution.”
“One woman recorded how at meetings there was an attack on her character, and her point of view was dismissed. Demeaning language was allowed, and she could see that decisions were made outside of the official meeting. Another woman who had publicly said at a political meeting that she was thinking of going for election was accosted twice the following week by the elected representative and a supporter because in their opinion she would split the vote,” Dr Maher commented.
See Her Elected are concerned at reports by women of being targeted online and incidences and threats of physical violence. The organisation’s Staying Safe Online and Digital Self-defence workshops aim to equip women with the knowledge to reduce the opportunity for this deeply problematic behaviour to impact them. SHE are supportive of the Task Force’s ambitions to formulate proposals on how to safeguard and support participation in political life.
Women in rural Ireland aiming for the 2024 local elections had solid and thoughtful suggestions for the Task Force to consider. Chief among these was action in relation to the response from social media platforms. Their current perceived lack of accountability was variously described as “a joke”, “the wild west – little or no moderating” and that social media platforms “do not care”.
Dr Maher believes that the forceful nature of how women felt about social media platforms is a clarion call for this aspect of political life to be prioritised by the Task Force.
“Social media platforms are consistently identified by women preparing for local elections in rural Ireland as critical actors in enabling safe participation in public life. Women are sceptical about the platforms’ commitment in this area and would like to see proposals from the Task Force that will see responses to complaints dealt with swiftly and properly, make it more difficult for people to set up multiple accounts, and overall take responsibility for what is on their platforms,” Dr Maher concluded.
