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    'Women of character': Women's Political Representation in Dáil Éireann in Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Ireland


    McGing, Claire (2020) 'Women of character': Women's Political Representation in Dáil Éireann in Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Ireland. Working Paper. MUSSI. (Unpublished)

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    Abstract

    This chapter outlines and assesses women’s political representation in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish Parliament, in both revolutionary and post-revolutionary Ireland. It argues that the establishment of the Irish Free State and the onset of Civil War in 1922 represent a shift in the opportunities available for women to enter parliamentary politics. Although the first woman MP ever elected was from Ireland and six women TDs1 were returned in the 1921 general election, Dáil Éireann following independence was a ‘colder house’ for women’s representation. The outright opposition of women TDs (and Republican women more generally) to the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922 was a crucial factor in the decline of women’s representation, as was the influence of various political, legislative and socio-cultural changes in the Irish Free State. Drawing on the parliamentary record and secondary sources, this chapter aims to reveal political women’s agency as activists and politicians in the decades that followed the establishment of the Irish Free State and considers the gendered obstacles the first women TDs faced in their roles. In doing so, the chapter assists with an important reappraisal of women in politics over this period.
    Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
    Keywords: women; political representation; Dáil Éireann; Ireland;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, MUSSI
    Item ID: 12705
    Depositing User: Claire McGing
    Date Deposited: 30 Mar 2020 14:39
    Publisher: MUSSI
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/12705
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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