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(Unpublished)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