“A RAT in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.” That line from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood goes out to an anonymous correspondent who felt I should be devoting column inches this week to one particular Social Democrats councillor.
They were very keen to know if I would be writing about Elisa O’Donovan calling other unelected female general election candidates “handmaidens” to their male party counterparts.
And after going down the social media rabbit hole to find what my pen pal was on about, I found that Cllr O’Donovan made a very valid point. We had seven quite noticeably male elected candidates fill our Dáil seats, a great many of whom (all bar one) had a female runningmate who went overwhelmingly unelected.
What year is it at all? As one eagle-eyed poster over on X pointed out: “There are still more Michaels than women elected as TDs in Cork.”
Women are seriously underrepresented in our political system and their voices need to be heard on issues important to women. That’s a no-brainier.
But look, this isn’t some dystopian tale of powerless women in a patriarchal society where they are treated as property. No siree Bob. Sure, give the same old same old another term in government and we might get there eventually, but people are still free to vote for whoever they want.
One Limerick gent claimed that not one female candidate knocked on his door. And in fairness, Elisa, if that is the case, you have no one else to blame – not even the ballot paper.
But mark my words, Cllr O’Donovan, who gave the men in grey suits a good strong run for their money, and was a hair’s breadth from taking the fourth city seat, will yet have her day. She’s a hardworking and fearless champion of all things Limerick. If she can keep her powder dry, I have no doubt she’ll be back to rule the roost next time out.
So what was it she said anyway that my pen pal believed was headline news?
Cllr O’Donovan’s campaign manager, Karen Sugrue, had replied to the ‘more Michaels than women’ post that there was “No woman at all elected in Limerick City or County. 7 men. Again.”
Cllr O’Donovan chimed in too, with: “The women from the establishment parties got the men elected, so they did their job well. #handmaidens.”
Sure, they are feeling bruised and hard done by, and you couldn’t blame them. But Ireland’s politically driven women gave a good innings in General Election 2024. Handmaidens or not.
The General Election 2024 results showed some significant successes for women (though admittedly not on Shannonside), while also highlighting areas (many of them) where more work is needed to ensure equal representation.
Women candidates secured 32 per cent of first preference votes. Eight women topped their respective polls. So there’s much work yet to be done. Women make up over 50 per cent of the population and this needs to be reflected in all political decision-making spaces going forward.
And to any woman considering taking up the political cause put off by the results last week, as Margaret Atwood herself famously suggested: “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
