Distinctive and Distinguished -
Irish Women MEP's

Marie-Claire Charon

Issue 349, vol.88, Spring 1999

It also signifies the greatest growth in the European Parliament between 1989 and 1994. Irish society, marked by a patriarchal view of women as wives and mothers, upholders of the household and guardians of family values, has kept women away from politics. In 1992 a record number of women won seats in the Dail and Senate and since then 12 women have been promoted to government posts. The access of women to higher judicial posts along with the election of Mary Robinson as President of Ireland in 1990 raised women’s expectations.

The European institutions took effective initiatives to improve the political representation of women. In September 1979 a Women’s Rights’ committeewas set up in the European Parliament. Furthermore, a European network of experts was created in 1992 to consider the participation of women. In order to reduce the gender gap, they demanded more women candidates for the 1994 European elections. This campaign bore fruit in so far as 23% of candidates in the election were women, a 100% increase since the first European election in 1979.

Some the European Parliament as weak and its role is hardly noticed. However the situation may benefit women candidates. According to Noreen Byrne, President of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, men wish to be prominent in Ireland and are more concerned with power. Apart from the substantial salary, the European Parliament may appeal less to able candidates. Voting for a woman at the European elections appears to have little significance and entails “little risk” since they seem to have little impact on Ireland. It has been said that the European elections are therefore second class elections where it is possible to take a small risk and vote for small parties or women.

Two of the three newly elected women members belong to the Greens, Nuala Ahern and Patricia McKenna. Among the 28 European Green members from nine different member states there are 12 women, a record representation of 43 per cent. In the 1994 European elections every other candidate presented by the Greens was a woman. The third woman is Bernie Malone of the Labour party that in 1990 produced the first woman president. Bernie Malone first entered the European Parliament as the deputy member for Barry Desmond. Appointed “European of the year 1997” by Mary McAleese, her former rival in the presidential election, she has been a remarkable representative for Ireland in the European Parliament, and one who brought Europe to Ireland and Ireland to Europe. Relentless and obstinate, Patricia McKenna denounces, accuses, condemns, incriminates, warns and questions individuals, institutions, European directives and National Parliament bills. Vice-president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Bernie Malone has on many occasions protested about the lack of information about European institutions which, she emphasises, do not necessarily have the same view about many areas of European policy. In European elections in Ireland candidates talk about Europe on the basis of domestic political concerns. The mission is therefore not confined to participation in European Parliament activities and debates. The women MEPs inform their voters about European problems that concern the political, economic and even cultural future of Ireland, and, at a more restricted level, on the quality of their constituents lives.

    It expresses the view of an Irish woman on Europe and links the major topics being discussed in Europe to the concerns of Ireland. Nuala Ahern, Bernie Malone, Mary Banotti and Patricia McKenna have made the Irish presence felt in Strasbourg. Although the exercise of power at the European level is difficult, these women have worked effectively and enthusiastically. It will be interesting to see the level of Irish interest in the 1999 election and the performance of women candidates. Equally interesting will be the performance of women candidates in the local elections in 1999 which can be for many women a good starting point before targeting national or European seats.

Marie-Claire Considère-Charon is a member of the Department of English Studies at the Université of Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse.