Women's council critical of Cabinet

questionmark? · 10-03-2011 04:37PM #1

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0310/1224291779368.html

Thats right the womens council believe that cabinet positions should have being based on not how good you are but rather if your a male or female! This to me stinks of sexism from the womens council. If they wanted something constructive to say they could have left it at this "Ms McKay said the council welcomed Ireland’s first woman Attorney General, Máire Whelan."

Now I know some of the appointments may not be everybody cups of tea but surely the appointment of anybody to any position based on sex is promoting sexism!?

enda1 · 10-03-2011 04:38PM

The women's council can suck my fat hairy cock.

orourkeda · 10-03-2011 04:39PM

Women. Tut.

Never happy are they

Cookie_Monster · 10-03-2011 04:39PM

If 14 out of 15 were women would they be complaining that men were under represented?

Best person for the job, regardless of gender

Sykk · 10-03-2011 04:42PM

enda1 wrote: »

The women's council can suck my fat hairy cock.

Quote from Enda.
Quote from Enda.
Quote from Enda.

marzic · 10-03-2011 04:44PM

enda1 wrote: »

The women's council can suck my fat hairy cock.

You tell 'em Taoiseach... Boom-Boom!

(well he did promise the people honesty)

questionmark? · 10-03-2011 04:45PM

enda1 wrote: »

The women's council can suck my fat hairy cock.

According to the womens council you should suck their fat hairy cocks lips!

Captain_Generic · 10-03-2011 04:46PM

Ms Kenny would agree

Morlar · 10-03-2011 04:53PM

The best person for the job, regardless of Gender, is the only way. Anything else is discrimination against the best qualified.

We are not really in a position where we should be making things even more difficult for ourselves by discriminating against the best qualified people for ministerial positions.

Dravokivich · 10-03-2011 05:12PM

Nice to know they want people in there for Gender as opposed to... erm... Policies and Ideals... or their political motivation / ability / experience...

Alter-Ego · 10-03-2011 05:12PM

Maybe if they introduced a Minister for Kitchens and Ironing. Or a Minister for Sandwiches and Washing Machines. :pac:

blockedPaT · 10-03-2011 05:19PM

Great logic by them, gender over ability lol

smellslikeshoes · 10-03-2011 05:21PM

By my reckoning 2 cabinet positions is proportionate to the amount of women in the Dail. 2/15 cabinet positions, 23/166 TDs.

Encouraging more women to run for office two months ago is what they should have been making noise about, not whining now that they feel only 2 cabinet ministers is unfair.

Ruu_Old · 10-03-2011 05:22PM

Women, know your limits! :mad:

silverspoon · 10-03-2011 05:37PM

OK, ignoring people being mysogynistic d!cks, whether trying to be funny or not, I knew this would be an issue once I heard the Cabinet makeup. Perhaps the Women's Council would have preferred a Cabinet member with the towering intellect of, say, Mary Coughlan, or the warm caring nature of Mary Harney. I'm very satisfied with the Cabinet makeup, and I don't care if they're hermaphrodite, strap-on wearing gigolos if they're competent and suited to the portfolio they were given. I certainly do not want a portfolio given to a women to pay lip service to anyone.
It was the same with these concerns about geography regarding Cabinet - oh it's too Dublin-centred, they should give a portfolio to a woman from the backyard of Limerick so that all the politically correct boxes are ticked. I'm from Tipperary and I couldn't give a monkeys if Munster is underrepresented in Cabinet. The Cabinet represents national interests, and it's not in the national interest to give a portfolio to a less qualified person on merit of fitting a politically correct profile for the sake of appearances. It's insulting - to the people who deserve a Ministry by virtue of their competence and are overlooked, to the person who gets this job as a pat on the head for being the right gender, and to the wider group that the receiver of this 'affirmative action' represents.

10-03-2011 05:38PM

On the one hand its sexism and on the other, well, if women are being shunted out then we should look at that.
I don't know what kind of pool of women they have to choose from for the cabinet though?

Dravokivich · 10-03-2011 05:51PM

bluewolf wrote: »

On the one hand its sexism and on the other, well, if women are being shunted out then we should look at that.

just cutting out the second part of your post becuase i'm not too sure on the quality of the rest of the td's meself...

but no one should get any job with their gender being factored in. thats what equality means.

equality does not mean you are going to have an even share of genders in a particular role, as that would require 1 of each gender to meet that "balance".

but then as another poster mentioned, the ratio of women in the cabinet doesnt seem too far off from the ratio of women in the dail overall.

although... i dont think that should be something set in stone.

each party would have people with an interest in different areas of government and put forward whoever they are confident with for it.

for example, leo varadkar has always been on about transport within blanch/carpenterstown. makes sense to me that he's become the minister for it in an fg government.

IvySlayer · 10-03-2011 05:56PM

The National Womens Council should cut in the next budget, what is their actual purpose?

10-03-2011 06:13PM

Dravokivich wrote: »

just cutting out the second part of your post becuase i'm not too sure on the quality of the rest of the td's meself...

but no one should get any job with their gender being factored in. thats what equality means.

equality does not mean you are going to have an even share of genders in a particular role, as that would require 1 of each gender to meet that "balance".

but then as another poster mentioned, the ratio of women in the cabinet doesnt seem too far off from the ratio of women in the dail overall.

although... i dont think that should be something set in stone.

each party would have people with an interest in different areas of government and put forward whoever they are confident with for it.

for example, leo varadkar has always been on about transport within blanch/carpenterstown. makes sense to me that he's become the minister for it in an fg government.

Yes I agree unless there is an obvious bias against one or the other.
You don't need to lecture me on quotas, that's why I said what kind of pool do they have. If they had loads of women of good quality then there's an obvious bias against them. If they dont, then there's no point yelling sexism when women just arent getting into politics.

biko · 10-03-2011 06:15PM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

If 14 out of 15 were women would they be complaining that men were under represented?

You can bet your butt that there'd be uproar in AH

Currently Norway and Sweden have close to 50/50 representation.

artanevilla · 10-03-2011 06:19PM

You shouldn't have a women in the cabinet just for the sake of having a women in the cabinet. The person that's best for the job should be in the cabinet, regardless of sex.

smash · 10-03-2011 06:28PM

artanevilla wrote: »

You shouldn't have a women in the cabinet just for the sake of having a women in the cabinet. The person that's best for the job should be in the cabinet, regardless of sex.

Unless they're really hot of course.

Morlar · 10-03-2011 06:32PM

steve06 wrote: »

Unless they're really hot of course.

Speaking of hot that reminds me ..

http://www.thejournal.ie/lucinda-creighton-says-there-should-be-no-token-females-in-the-cabinet-2011-03/

Lucinda Creighton says there should be no ‘token females’ in the cabinet

FINE GAEL TD Lucinda Creighton has said that any women appointed to the cabinet later today should not be regarded as “token females”.

Speaking at an event to mark International Women’s Day, Creighton said that it was important that any women TDs appointed to the cabinet or as junior ministers should not be considered as “filling a gender quota”, reports the Irish Times.

She said that a lot of women within her party didn’t believe that the introduction of a gender quota was a solution to the issue of female participation in Irish politics.

However, Creighton welcomed the coalition government’s proposal to link party subsidies to the number of women candidates put forward for elections.

donfers · 10-03-2011 06:40PM

steve06 wrote: »

Unless they're really hot of course.

Silvio, is that you....can't we send the national women's council to Italy, give them a relocation bonus and give them a cause actually worth fighting for?

donfers · 10-03-2011 06:42PM

Morlar wrote: »

Speaking of hot that reminds me ..

easy now.....she's hot by irish female politican standards which doesn't necessarily say a lot......it's like saying I am an Olympic athlete because I am surrounded by lepers

donfers · 10-03-2011 06:43PM

biko wrote: »

You can bet your butt that there'd be uproar in AH
Currently Norway and Sweden have close to 50/50 representation.

if 14 of the cabinet were women and they proved to be excellent at their jobs then I'd like to think that AH would have no problem with that

donfers · 10-03-2011 06:45PM

IvySlayer wrote: »

The National Womens Council should cut in the next budget, what is their actual purpose?

to foster discrimination in society but brainwash and manipulate the media and cowed masses into believing that it is in fact equality

PrincessLola · 10-03-2011 06:55PM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

If 14 out of 15 were women would they be complaining that men were under represented?

Best person for the job, regardless of gender

If 14 out of 15 were women there would be no end of bitching about it on AH, about being a "whipped" society living under the control of "teh femnazis" and men claiming their lack of representation in government was victimising them.

OutlawPete · 10-03-2011 07:20PM

Must be no Hunky Dory ad campaigns for Susan to get her sexist knickers in a twist about this week.

Dangerous Man · 10-03-2011 07:23PM

biko wrote: »

You can bet your butt that there'd be uproar in AH
Currently Norway and Sweden have close to 50/50 representation.

No, you can't actually. The majority of posters on AH rightly distrust the likes of the Women's council, Bacik, etc because they push an anti-equality agenda that suits a select few, and are openly sexist. If the cabinet was tomorrow made up purely of women I personally wouldn't care as long as they got the posts by merit and I'm sure most AH members would feel the same way. End of. Oh, and by the way, what happens in Norway and Sweden is of NO RELEVANCE TO IRELAND. Just as what happens in China, politically, is of no relevance, or Mongolia, or New Zealand, or Chile, or Ukraine.
This argument, from feminists, is getting extremely old, actually. They're just as selective in providing evidence for their arguments as they are in tackling 'inequality.' It's an obvious, and extremely cynical power-grab - nothing more.

twinQuins · 10-03-2011 07:25PM

She said it was “a disgrace” that the newly appointed Labour Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton was not given a financial portfolio, as had been anticipated.

I'm sure there are plenty of people that didn't win the lotto as they anticipated but them's the breaks.

Women's council critical of Cabinet

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