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James Horan/Photocall Ireland
Female politicians celebrating 90 years of women in the Oireachtas in 2008
# Gender Quotas
Major government conference aims to attract more women into politics
The conference, entitled How To Elect More Women, comes in the wake of this week’s legislation which will introduce gender quotas.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced a major conference to examine how to attract more women into politics.
The conference, entitled How to Elect More Women is due to be held in Dublin Castle in January.
The move comes in the wake of yesterday’s publication of legislation which sets financial penalties for political parties if they don’t run at least 30 per cent of candidates from either gender.
Kathleen Lynch, the Minister for Equality, said that the Government is committed to a more gender-balanced political life.
The Minister pointed out that over 90 years since women got the vote, fewer than one in seven TDs are women.
The conferences is designed to encourage women to run for office, said the Minister:
The aim of the conference is to encourage women from an equally diverse range of backgrounds to consider a new role for themselves as political party members, as potential candidates, as contestants in elections and as representatives of both their area and their beliefs in the local and national political arenas.
Gender quotas bill welcomed by women’s groups >
Column: Gender quotas do women no favours – and undermine democracy >
