Women's Regional Caucus brings female councillors together for first in-person meeting

In what was described as a historic milestone for local government in Ireland, a Women's Regional Caucus of female councillors held its first in-person meeting recently.

The caucus, which has a membership of 42 female councillors from the Midlands, North and West, was established last September to increase women's engagement and representation in local politics.

Its membership includes female councillors from Westmeath, Roscommon and Offaly.

The caucus is designed to help its members find common ground and improve the working conditions of female councillors.

The chairperson of the Women's Regional Caucus, Cavan's Cllr Carmel Brady, expressed these views after the inaugural in-person meeting took place in the Sligo Park Hotel last week.

Female councillors from 13 councils across the Midlands, North and West regions gathered at the meeting to finalise and adopt their programme of work.

A key ambition for the caucus is to support and enable women to get involved in -- and stay in -- politics.

This will include advocating for policy and coordinating consensus-based motions and policies across the 13 local authorities to improve issues faced by women councillors and women constituents.

The regional caucus has identified a number of non-pay supports that will help both existing and future female councillors and make local government as diverse as possible.

Issues female councillors are currently facing include the lack of proper maternity leave provision for local authority elected members and administrative supports for councillors to help with the heavy workload.

It was stated that introducing family-friendly measures including flexible council meeting times, duration of meetings, and remote attendance at meetings would also help address some of the issues which are putting women off entering and staying in politics.

The main goals of the programme of work include; raising awareness of the important role and work of women in local politics, to support and enable women to get involved in, and remain in, politics as well as providing support and training for the caucus membership.

Following the meeting, the chairperson of the caucus, Cllr Brady, said: "We look forward to seeing what we can achieve collectively as a motivated group of women councillors.

"By so many of us being here in person today, we are taking an important step in getting to know each other and finding common ground between us to help with our role as councillors.

"The Women’s Regional Caucus aims to not only inspire more women across the county to get involved in local politics but to also improve the working environment for women Councillors.

"We look forward to the opportunity to engage with many women and groups in our communities over the next 18 months to highlight the need for more female representation and creating a space for informal mentoring and sharing of information," she concluded.