Meet the group working hard to get more women into politics in Northern Ireland

Meet a group working hard to attract more women into politics in Northern Ireland.

50:50 NI, founded in 2020, aims to ensure that the policies here reflect the general public. With women making up 51% of Northern Ireland’s population, the group is working to get women to make up 51% of political institutions.

Currently, women make up only 26% of local councils and 18% of mayors or council heads. This underrepresentation persists in other political institutions, where women make up 33% of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly (MLA) and 22% of parliamentarians (MPs).

Aoife Clement inspired the creation of the NI 50:50 scale after becoming interested in feminist perspectives on law and our legal system at the study of Law and Anthropology in London.

She knew many groups that worked hard to get more women into politics, and she knew that nothing like that worked in Northern Ireland.

Oweif told Belfast Live: “Covid really fueled gender inequality when we got this extra care and homework. This problem happened to me and I decided to use 50:50. Because we need more women in politics, we need more Women’s leadership in society.

“We don’t just need more white women, we need more working-class women, women of color, women with disabilities, women of color, rural women. We need Stormont to appear as diverse as the company.”

“The feedback has been really positive. Politicians of all races I have worked with have been very supportive and eager to help and point me in the right direction.”

In addition to providing women with an education in politics, Aoife works with political parties to help make politics more attractive to women.

“We had parties that didn’t do well like the DUP and the United League, and the UUP in particular was really responsive and took into account everything we talked about,” Auyef said.

They have formed a women’s group within the party and are making real efforts to get more women candidates in this election. It is very good that they are trying to make changes.

“Other parties that already have internal policies that are really responsive and doing what they can to win over and keep women in the parties. Hopefully we’ll see more tangible change after the election. I obviously don’t expect that.” Getting to 50:50 at night is a slow process, but I I really think we’re starting to see change and people are realizing that we need more women to vote.”

While more women are now taking part in politics in Northern Ireland, Auyev added that was “enough” and noted several obstacles to a female career.

And she continued: “There is no maternity leave, which is a huge obstacle, especially for young women who want to start a family. Also, there is no childcare. If you are, for example, a consultant, then your meetings in the evening are not easy. Taking care of a child if he is not a family member and we cannot assume that everyone has it.

“Northern Ireland politics is also seen as controversial, it’s very tense and very intense. It’s probably not the case every day when you work in Stormont or on the board of directors, but the problem is you have the media claiming that Northern Ireland politics are totally green and orange. And it is very severe.It is useless, it acts as a barrier and makes politics ambiguous to everyone in general and not just to women.

“Especially for women, online violence and trolling are major obstacles. What women told me about the strange messages they received and the harassment. I have women who have said that if they knew the harassment was that bad, they wouldn’t. In politics “I didn’t understand. We shouldn’t see it as part of the job.”

For all of the young women who want to become politicians, Ovi gave some advice.

“If you are interested in politics and really care about people, that is the only reason you should be involved,” he said.

“We have a lot of people in politics who don’t seem to care about people. We are willing to train young women who are willing to enter politics, and we can teach them the basic skills they need.”

You can learn more about 50:50 NI by clicking here.