Women, Community and Politics in Northern Ireland
by Grainne McCoy
From: Gender, democracy and inclusion in Northern Ireland By Carmel Roulston and Celia Davies
Published by PALGRAVE 2000
Women in mainstream politics
To give an account of women in mainstream politics and government, it is necessary first to outline the distinctive features of the Northern Ireland political system. From 1921 until 1972, Northern Ireland was governed by a local parliament (at Stormont in Belfast) and cabinet, based on the so-called Westminster model of government, with, from 1929, a first-past-the-post electoral system, which gave the Unionist party a permanent majority. This parliament had considerable autonomy in domestic matters, supported by it's own civil service. In 1972, the Stormont parliament was closed down, having been judged by the British government to have failed to control the civil disorder which had escalated from 1969. An unsuccessful attempt was made, in 1973-4, to restore devolved government to a new Assembly in which unionist parties would share executive powers with nationalists(1). Apart from that brief experiment, there has been direct rule from Westminster, with the secretary of state and Northern Ireland Office ministers responsible for policy-making, using the mechanism of orders in council to introduce legislation. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has its own Westminster-based team of civil servants; there is also a separate Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS), with six departments.
The abolition of the Stormont parliament was accompanied by a reform of local government. As a result, control over housing, education, libraries and social services was removed from local councils and placed in the hands of a housing executive and area boards, whose members were appointed or approved by the relevant minister or department. In this way, it was hoped, provision of statutory and important services would not be blighted by political or sectarian biases. There are, at present, 131 non-elected public bodies responsible for many aspects of policy-making (Heenan and Gray 1999:189). Twenty-six local councils, with very limited powers, were created. The councils' responsibilities are locally said to consist of little more than 'bins and burials'; since the 1970s, however, they have also been required to take responsibility for improving community relations and promoting community development, responsibilities which, as will be seen, have particular significance for women's participation.
With a population of just over 1.5 million, and an electorate of 1.1 million, Northern Ireland has a lot of elected representatives, but suffers from a lack of democracy. In the electoral sphere, Northern Ireland has the 26 local councils, and returns 18 members of parliament to Westminster and three members to the European Parliament. In June 1996 a Forum for Political Dialogue with 110 elected members was created as part of the peace process. With the acceptance of the Belfast Agreement in the referendum of May 1998, a 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly was elected, replacing the Forum. At time of writing, the Assembly had not taken over control of policy because of a fundamental disagreement, principally between Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist party, over the exact timing of decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in the process of implementing the agreement. Direct rule continues.
Throughout its history Northern Ireland has elected few women to parliaments
or local councils. In total 9 women (the majority of them dominant in the
Unionist party) were elected to Stormont during its lifetime. There were
never more than 4 women (out of 52 members of the Northern Ireland parliament)
in any session, and only one ever became a minister. Only 3 women (2 unionists)
have represented Northern Ireland seats at Westminster, the most recent
being Bernadette Devlin (now McAliskey) who held a seat as a 'nationalist
unity' representative from 1969 to 1974 (Galligan and Wilford 1999). There
are currently no women among the 18 Westminster MPs, nor among the members
of the European Parliament. 14 members (13 per cent) of the Northern Ireland
Assembly are women, including 2 members of the Northern Ireland Women's
Coalition. Of the 26 district councils, there are 3 with no women members
at all and overall, approximately 15 per cent of council members are women
(Roulston 1996). The picture is better in the public bodies, where women
make up 24 per cent of appointed or nominated members. As Heenan and Gray
(1999:189-91) point out, however, there are still 8 public bodies with no
women members at all, and at the most influential (and salaried) levels
of such bodies the percentage of women is much smaller. |
