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Women from community, corporate, educational and NGO backgrounds attended the first of a three-part training and awareness programme at Cork City Hall yesterday ( Friday, March 24) aimed at engaging, inspiring and encouraging more women to consider running for election.

Cork City Council is partnering with Women for Election, and is supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to deliver the ‘More Women in Politics’ programme. Yesterday’s ‘Introduction to Politics’ was  delivered by Pat Montague, an advocacy and strategy consultant working in the not-for-profit sector.

Speaking at the  event, Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Deirdre Forde said: 

This is an encouraging and timely development as we begin to prepare for the 2024 local elections. I really hope in the near future we will reach equal 50/50 representation in our historic council chamber. I am one of only 6 women to act as Cork City’s first citizen, this startling statistic highlights the imperative to prioritise gender equality and diversity at local government level.

This series of bespoke training and awareness sessions is to engage, encourage, inform and inspire women in all their diversity from across the county to consider getting involved in politics and take their seat at the table and become one of the decision makers.

Councillor Mary Rose Desmond, Chair of Cork City Women’s Caucus added: 

On International Women’s Day 2023, we celebrated the two-year anniversary since Cork City Council’s Women’s Caucus was established. We have certainly made progress in those two years on promoting and encouraging women through webinars, conferences and much more to become more actively involved in local politics, but we can always make more. As our Lord Mayor rightly said, this comes at an opportune time when the 2024 elections are approaching.

With this in mind, we need to ensure we are working together to see more women step forward and run for election, this is what will facilitate change. I hope that this programme can be a stepping stone to the women of Cork to make this change.

Caitríona Gleeson, CEO of Women for Election said: 

We are delighted to be working with Cork City Council on this vital programme. The more women we have from a diversity of backgrounds at the table the greater the quality of decision making and the greater the decisions reflect the needs of our communities. We are looking forward to working with the many women already signed up.

Paul Moynihan, Director of Corporate Affairs and International Relations at Cork City Council said:  

It is great to partner with Women for Election again to bring the ‘More Women for Election in Cork’ programme to City Hall. Each day decisions are made that affect each Cork citizen; however, many of these  are made with only a minority of women being heard. It is our combined hope that these targeted capacity building events will inspire and encourage women to become involved in politics and hopefully in the future have equal representation at the decision-making table.

This programme will run until the end of June this year with two more upcoming events: 

• ‘Women Belong’ with Yemi Adenuga, the first black woman to be elected as a local councillor. It will explore the importance of diversity and representation at the decision-making table.
• ‘Power and Perseverance’ with Linda Kelly, National Secretary of Fórsa Trade Union.

Whether you are a sitting councillor, informally involved in local politics or new to politics but interested in pursuing, this programme will help you on your way.

To find out more and register your attendance for the next event, before spaces are gone, visit www.womenforelection.ie/cork/