Ireland: STV: A gender-proportional system?

In the 2002 parliamentary election, Mary O’Rourke, deputy leader of Fianna Fail1 and government minister, lost the seat she held for two decades. Nora Owen, former minister and deputy leader of Fine Gael,2 also lost her longheld seat in that contest. In contrast, Marian Harkin, a nonparty candidate, won a seat on her first attempt in 2002, topping the poll in her constituency. A decade earlier, Eithne Fitzgerald won a seat for the Labour Party3 on her fifth attempt and in the process won more votes than any other candidate nationwide. These personal political pen-pictures illustrate the uncertainty surrounding the single transferable vote (STV). It suggests that political women, no matter how well established, are in a vulnerable position under this electoral system and that newcomer women can be advantaged given the right circumstances. In this chapter, we explore how much of this uncertainty is linked to the electoral system, and how much can be explained by other factors.