Do women care about politics?

Bigcheeze · 27-02-2011 9:19pm #1

For me, the most stunning statistic from the Boards election simulator is that men made up approximately 80% of the voters.

There is a lot of media debate about female representation in the Dail and the general consensus seems to be that politics is a hostile arena for women. Are women just not interested in politics and the level of female representation is more a product of a lack of interest than any perceived barrier ?

I'm aware that the Boards population doesn't represent the general population as the average age on Boards is quite young. Bearing that in mind, do young women not care about politics ? Do older women vote because they don't take sexual equality for granted ? Do older women vote because their husband votes ?

opinion guy · 27-02-2011 9:24pm

Bigcheeze wrote: »

For me, the most stunning statistic from the Boards election simulator is that men made up approximately 80% of the voters.

There is a lot of media debate about female representation in the Dail and the general consensus seems to be that politics is a hostile arena for women. Are women just not interested in politics and the level of female representation is more a product of a lack of interest than any perceived barrier ?

I'm aware that the Boards population doesn't represent the general population as the average age on Boards is quite young. Bearing that in mind, do young women not care about politics ? Do older women vote because they don't take sexual equality for granted ? Do older women vote because their husband votes ?

Has it occurred to you that maybe women aren't that interested in boards ?

mikemac · 27-02-2011 9:26pm

Bigcheeze wrote: »

For me, the most stunning statistic from the Boards election simulator is that men made up approximately 80% of the voters.

The boards census has this site as 70% or so male.

The fact that you see 80% men on the boards voting site says more about boards.ie then it does about voting in the general public

Bigcheeze · 27-02-2011 9:31pm

feelingstressed wrote: »

The boards census has this site as 70% or so male.

The fact that you see 80% men on the boards voting site says more about boards.ie then it does about voting in the general public

Interesting. I always assumed that because boards covers just about every topic of discussion that it would be more or less 50-50.

pow wow · 27-02-2011 9:32pm

I wouldn't say it's just a lack of interest though I'm sure that's a part of it. Politics in Ireland to me seems to be a bit of an old boys network, and of course who you're related to seems to make all the difference.

I'm interested and used to work in politics but rarely if ever even post in the Politics forum here. I wouldn't put too much stock in who took the time to use the vote simulator and who didn't as a representation of female interest in politics.

whydoibother? · 27-02-2011 9:35pm

I'm female. I care about politics. I think women have just as strong views as men.

As to representation in the Dáil, politics is a very demanding career and if we are ever going to see large numbers of women going for high-pressure, demanding, time-consuming jobs, we need a proper plan in relation to childcare. Sweden invested heavily in State childcare and increased female participation across all sectors. While women are deciding that that cost of childcare is prohibitive and they should stay at home, we are never going to see them rising to the top. Logically, if you take 10 years out of your career to mind children, it's going to be very tough to go as far as you would have otherwise.

viota · 27-02-2011 9:37pm

I'm female and i'm really interested in politics.

dan_d · 27-02-2011 9:38pm

I'm a 28 year old woman.

Most of my friends are quite interested in politics.They don't lurk on Boards though, as far as I know.

Honestly I think it comes down to a couple of fairly simple things. (and I'm not starting a men vs women debate, I just can't think of anything else)
Most women are just too busy to spend hours of their life on Boards. I see some of the replies to posts here, and the level of detail, while admirable, looks as though it took ages to post. Between finding statistics and linking to them, multi-quoting various posts, and finding news articles to back your point up.....some days I honestly wonder how much time some people have on their hands!!!I'm unemployed, and therefore have more time than most to be playing around here - even at that, I'm not here all the time. If there's kids in a family, it tends to be the woman who's looking after them/tidying once they're in bed/getting lunches ready/gathering clothes together, while the man sits in front of the TV/computer.Now look, I know not every household is like that, which is not the argument for here.

I also think that women tend to talk a lot more.....many prefer face-to-face conversations, as opposed to face-to-computer-screen conversations. That's just a female tendency. They may be quite tuned into politics but they just don't spend hours of their lives on an internet forum discussing it, because they don't have hours of their life to spend surfing internet forums.

I am actually in a hurry here, because I've stuff to do (Sunday night - cleaning and the like!!!:D:D:D) but that's the best I can come up with.

noddyname · 27-02-2011 9:40pm

I'm also female and interested in who will be involved in making decisions regarding our future in this country - I think that statistic relates more to Boards than politics in general.

SarahBM · 27-02-2011 9:40pm

Im female, I am interested in politics, I work with mostly women who are also very interested in politics.
I dont think the number of women in the Dail reflects the level of interest women have in politics. like a previous poster said, women's participation would be higher if there was better child care.

theg81der · 27-02-2011 10:59pm

I`m female and I love politics, economics, finance etc but to be honest I don`t feel good enough yet to throw my hat in. Maybe Irish women aren`t as arrogant or self assured as Irish men, but that seems to be to simplistic?

I don`t have kids yet and although I would love to have children I think it very hard for women to do both career and family at the best of times but with this type of political lifestlye you couldn`t but compromise one or the other. It really does feel like a choice and I worry about it.

My mum was a career focused person and I respect her for it, she gave me a strong female role model, but....what I understand now as an adult I didn`t as a child and it`s not how I`d like to bring my own family up.

murphaph · 27-02-2011 11:09pm

I don't believe that women have no interest in politics, but as already mentioned, women are still likely to be the ones doing most of the looking after the kids and in a single income household it is still highly unusual for the bread winner to be the woman.

More women in the Dail can really only be a good thing for Ireland and bring a sense of balance to the place. I get the impression it's easier for corruption to take hold in an "old boy's club" than a place with 50/50 men/women.

This thread reminded me of this however!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjxY9rZwNGU

gcgirl · 27-02-2011 11:19pm

Child care is a biggy in every mums case, there's the argument of stay at home v working mums and personally I think what ever works each woman is different but child care is awful in this country so bloody expensive fair enough we had the early childcare allowance which threw money at it instead of actually building proper childcare facilitys and now we have a free pre school year way hay the things I can do in 3 hours a morning, in France my brother sends his 2 kids to a state run place where they are looked after while himself and his other half works! Here we have nothing so unless you have the cash good luck, I am pretty political from home though and most mums are too as well

Centaur · 27-02-2011 11:36pm

dan_d wrote: »

I'm a 28 year old woman.

Most of my friends are quite interested in politics.They don't lurk on Boards though, as far as I know.

Honestly I think it comes down to a couple of fairly simple things. (and I'm not starting a men vs women debate, I just can't think of anything else)
Most women are just too busy to spend hours of their life on Boards. I see some of the replies to posts here, and the level of detail, while admirable, looks as though it took ages to post. Between finding statistics and linking to them, multi-quoting various posts, and finding news articles to back your point up.....some days I honestly wonder how much time some people have on their hands!!!I'm unemployed, and therefore have more time than most to be playing around here - even at that, I'm not here all the time. If there's kids in a family, it tends to be the woman who's looking after them/tidying once they're in bed/getting lunches ready/gathering clothes together, while the man sits in front of the TV/computer.Now look, I know not every household is like that, which is not the argument for here.

I also think that women tend to talk a lot more.....many prefer face-to-face conversations, as opposed to face-to-computer-screen conversations. That's just a female tendency. They may be quite tuned into politics but they just don't spend hours of their lives on an internet forum discussing it, because they don't have hours of their life to spend surfing internet forums.

I am actually in a hurry here, because I've stuff to do (Sunday night - cleaning and the like!!!:D:D:D) but that's the best I can come up with.

I think your argument has some validity. Although I have been a member of boards for a couple of years I have only become a serious lurker since the election started. I do admit to spending a bit of time composing some of my posts.
However I think there is more to it than that. It does raise some interesting questions about the difference between the male and female psyche. For instance you opine that women don't spend hours of their lives on an internet forum. I would argue though that women do spend as much time on the internet but on different sites. Discussion forums like boards probably aren't as popular as social networking sites such as facebook. I am not saying this in a pejorative or derogatory way I must add. There is no right or wrong about this.
Maybe men’s interest in discussion forums is a kind of ego thing. A need to share opinions and find an audience for it. Perhaps in some oblique way it also extends into the world of politics and does explain the low participation levels of women. Of course this is amateur psychology at its utmost and could be total rubbish.
There was one interesting stat from the boards poll that stood out for me though. In the party affiliation by gender graph more women prefer Labour over FG than men. From my point of view that's a good thing and I would welcome greater participation of women in politics. In reality I think this would need quotas, at least initially. Olwyn Enright's decision to retire highlights the fact that being a politician is not family friendly. It does not seem to be high on the agenda of reform and would probably need a critical mass of female members to make it so.

Shelga · 27-02-2011 11:44pm

dan d is a woman?? :eek: Always like your posts and thought you were a guy!

I'm a 23 year old woman and very interested in politics compared to my friends.

dashboard_hula · 27-02-2011 11:54pm

I'm female, and very interested in politics - but I tend to be a lurker rather than a seasoned debater. Most of the time when I would like to make a point in particularly lively thread, I find that the point has already been made for me.
As regards politics irl, I think it's getting better. 23 female TD's elected isn't too bad, and it's worth noting that most of those are FG.

jill_valentine · 27-02-2011 11:58pm

I think there is at the very least a perception that while women will vote for men, men are generally less open to voting for women. Seems like an important factor. If women don't think there's any point in running, they won't.

There are still plenty of pubs in the country where a woman's political opinion carries less weight than her male counterpart, just 'cause.

Seth Brundle · 28-02-2011 12:04am

Speaking for myself only (I'm male), I woudn't care whether the candidate is male or female as long as they appear to be up to the job.

However, purely for the record, I'm interested in both politics and females

Centaur · 28-02-2011 12:26am

dashboard_hula wrote: »

I'm female, and very interested in politics - but I tend to be a lurker rather than a seasoned debater. Most of the time when I would like to make a point in particularly lively thread, I find that the point has already been made for me.
As regards politics irl, I think it's getting better. 23 female TD's elected isn't too bad, and it's worth noting that most of those are FG.

Just to be pedantic about it the breakdown so far is as follows

TOT Women %
FG 70 10 14
Lab 36 7 19
FF 18 0 0
SF 12 2 17
Oth 17 4 26

In pure statistical terms there are more non FG female TD's and the highest % is from the Others.

Do women care about politics?

Comments