[Leading Cork to take its place as a World Class City] __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Corporate Affairs & International Relations Women in politics - Be the She Change" webinar 17th November 2021 Ireland’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN), the first woman to head up the Scouts in this count ry and the first Traveller woman to sit in the Oireachtas were just some of the trailblazers who spoke at a webinar aimed at encouraging more women into politics, organised by Cork City Council in conjunction with its Women’s Caucus and supported by the De partment of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Titled “Women in politics – Be the She Change,” the keynote address was given by Geraldine Byrne Nason, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who drew global acclaim for her passi onate speech on women’s rights in Afghanistan at the time of the US exit from the country. Joining her were Jill Pitcher Farrell, the first female Chief Scout, Senator Eileen Flynn, the first Traveller woman to serve in the Oireachtas and Cllr Uruemu Adejinmi, the first African woman to be elected Cathaoirleach of an Irish local authority. A panel discussion with the Caucus’s Chair, Cllr. Mary Rose Desmond, Cork City Council Chief Executive , Ann Doherty and former Lord Mayor of Cork, Catherine Clancy was moderated by Dr. Theresa Reidy (Department of Government & Politics UCC). Cllr. John Sheehan discussed the everyday impact of period poverty with a student from St. Angela’s College, Cork City who has taken part in the Young Social Innovators - YSI Ireland project. Meanwhile, his Cork City Council colleague, Cllr. Garrett Kelleher took part in the second panel discussion moderated by Senator Flynn. Caroline O’Driscoll, partner at Deloitte Ireland and co -founder of iWish, the enormously successfully programme aimed at encouraging young girls into STEM careers, concluded the webinar. The webinar was interpreted by two Irish Sign Language interpreters. Speaking before the webinar took place, Chair, Cllr Mary Rose Desmond said: “We are making a real effort t o encourage as many people as possible, women and men, as we can to join this webinar as the challenge of increasing the number of women in local politics is not going away. Put simply, women make up half of the population yet there are not anywhere enough of us at the tables where decisions are being made about our lives. The webinar will be enormously interesting as women from diverse backgrounds and from political & non-political forums will take a hard and honest look at the systemic barriers and fears that stop many women from seeing themselves get involved in local politics.” History of Cork City Council's Women's Caucus On International Women’s Day last year, Cork City Council made history by launching its first cross -party women’s caucus. It was established “to promote women in politics and enhance female participation in Local Government by exploring barriers and challenges to participation, in addition to appropriate interventions to form collective and targeted actions on issues, in areas of co mmon interest.” Women remain woefully underrepresented in Irish politics and there is a clear lack of wider diversity, despite some recent gains in local government. This may signal systemic obstacles that work to undermine women’s interest in political engagement or entering politics. Nationally, 226 women took seats in the local elections in 2019, making up 24% of all Councillors across the country. In Cork City, 24 women, out of a total of 82 candidates, ran in these elections. Six were successful, meaning just 19% of the current elected members on Cork City Council are women.
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