GEIA director Dr. Shirley Graham was invited by the Irish Ambassador to the U.S. to attend a private dinner with former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, who was also the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and is now a passionate Climate Change and Gender Advocate.
The dinner was honoring both Mary and St. Brigid, the female patron saint of Ireland. Mary has a podcast series called ‘Mothers of Invention’ about climate change and she is interviewed by comedienne Maeve Higgins
Modern Irish Role Model, inspired by Sinead Walsh, EU ambassador to South Sudan. Illustration: Paula McGloin
The election of December 1918 took place just one month after the armistice that brought the First World War to an end. A year of many firsts, 1918 was the first time Irish women were permitted by law to vote and stand in parliamentary elections. That same year, Countess Constance Markievicz was the first woman ever to be elected to the Westminster parliament, although she refused to take her seat there. (Read more about the Irish women’s suffrage movement in 1918.)
Irish representatives elected in December were invited to meet in Dublin a month later to establish the First Dáil (Parliament). One hundred years ago, on 21 January 1919, the first Dáil met in the Round Room of the Mansion House. During the two-hour sitting, Dáil Members adopted a Constitution and read out a Declaration of Independence, first in Irish, then in French and, finally, in English.
To celebrate the centenary of the First Dáil, Ambassador Daniel Mulhall hosted a panel discussion with GEIA Director Dr. Shirley Graham and Dr. Jennifer Wells of The George Washington University on the impact of the 1918 election and the legacy of the First Dáil.
Following her remarks, Dr. Graham shared a poem “Our future will become the past of other women” by Eavan Boland.Boland’s commissioned poem on women’s suffrage recited at the UN General Assembly was an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy on the eve of the centenary of the 1918 General Election. View the full poem. Please see the poem’s illustration pictured above left.
Dr. Graham’s remarks are as follows:
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, Ambassador Mulhall thank you for inviting me to speak at this important event celebrating the First Irish Dail, it is an honour and a privilege.
Friends, imagine for a moment this scene: a 90 year old woman, surrounded by cheering crowds waving flags and flowers, as she casts her first ever ballot vote in December 1918. Who was this woman and why was she met in the streets of Dublin with such delight? It was Anna Haslam, who along with her husband Thomas, was the founder of the Dublin Women’s Suffragette Association and who spent 40 years campaigning for women’s right to vote and stand for election. She was casting her vote at a time when many of our grandmothers or great grandmothers were either girls or young women, hopeful for a new Ireland, one which cherished all of its children and treated its women and men equally. But what kind of lives did our grandmothers actually live?
In 1918 women gained only partial franchise, voting rights were given to women aged 30 or over who owned property or had a university degree. It wasn’t until 1922 that Irish women gained full suffrage (1).
The reason why I began my remarks by remembering Anna Haslam, is to remind us all that the remarkable achievements in 1918 of the women’s suffrage movement that led to the election of Countess Markievicz as the first woman MP in the Houses of Westminster, and subsequently the only woman in the First Dail, was as a result of the tireless and courageous campaigning of hundreds of women over many years.
But up until the recent centenary commemorations many of these women were invisible in Irish history, unknown and without voice. Although, Irish feminist historians (2) have been writing these women back into history for many years, in secondary schools today when teaching about the 1916 era, only two women are discussed: Constance Markievicz and the artist Evie Hone, even though 500 women took part in the Rising (3).
Let us return to the historic moment when Countess Markievicz was elected. As I’m sure you know, she was a woman of contrasts and contradictions. A member of the aristocracy, a socialite, a feminist, a suffragist, a military leader: second in command of the Irish Citizen Army, a republican, a politician and an artist. In fact, it was while she was studying at the Slade School of Art in London in 1893, that she was first exposed to the cause of women’s suffrage, inspiring her political activism and later on her fight for the nationalist cause. (4)
As a political representative and a minister in the First Dail, Markievicz was stepping into a new role for women, one that she and her supporters could previously only imagine. An imagination that did not extend to all, as was revealed in her letter from Westminster inviting her to take her seat in Parliament, which saluted her as ‘Dear Sir’!
If ‘a community is imagined more than it is actually met and connected with’ (5), what was it that enabled Irish women to imagine a new gender equal Ireland? To answer that question we first have to ask: ‘Where were the women? What roles, responsibilities and duties did they hold? Were those roles and responsibilities valued? How did those roles enable them to gain the vote and stand for election?
So, where were women in the lead up to the creation of the First Irish Dail? Women were creating inspirational and revolutionary organizations such as Inghidhne na hEireann, the Irish Women’s Franchise League, the Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation, the North of Ireland Women’s Suffrage Society, the Irish Women’s Union and Cumann na mBan. They were publishing and distributing their own newspapers, such as Bean na hEireann and The Irish Citizen newspaper, providing a public space for women to express their political views. Feminist women leaders were carving out a space for public discourse on gender inequality in an Ireland that positioned women firmly in the home and dependent on male breadwinners.
What roles, responsibilities and duties did women hold? From the late 1800s Women were taking on roles as social activists raising awareness of injustices such as overcrowded housing, domestic violence, lack of access to family planning, and the discriminatory treatment of the Contagious Diseases Act, which led to women prostitutes with venereal diseases forced into Lock hospitals for up to nine months.
Women were military leaders in the nationalist cause as well as combatants, intelligence gatherers, couriers, fundraisers, and nurses. Women were also proponents of non-violent means of gaining Irish independence, promoting and circulating pamphlets on pacifism. (6)
By 1914 she was a prominent member of the Irish Citizen Army, advocating the need for an armed rebellion. She commissioned photographs portraying herself as a military leader prepared to fight for Ireland and proffering practical advice to her fellow women activists ‘Dress suitably and buy a revolver’.
Were these roles, responsibilities and duties valued in society? After the Third home rule bill (1914) excluded women from voting the frustrated suffrage movement became more militant. Women took to their platforms speaking out against this and the many other discriminations they faced, and while they inspirational for many, they were also heckled, jeered and harassed by members of the crowds. The women who smashed windows in the GPO, Dublin Castle and other government buildings, were often beaten by the police as well as members of the public, and then imprisoned for civil disobedience, only released after prolonged hunger strikes, and in some cases, force feeding (7).
These women didn’t know that they would succeed, and yet they risked their lives, their health, and their livelihoods (for example Hanna Sheehy Skeffington lost three teaching jobs due to her activism) (8) to ensure that we, future generations of women could vote.
At the same time that women were fighting for the feminist cause they were also fighting for the nationalist cause. Although women were active alongside their male comrades they were not always taken seriously in these combatant roles. For example, after the 1916 Rising, the 77 women who were imprisoned in Richmond Barracks had initially been told to ‘go back to their homes’ (9), but they refused, and insisted on being treated the same as revolutionary men. These women who were depicted as ‘unmanageable revolutionaries’ came from all walks of life, they were teachers, factory workers, journalists, shop workers, and doctors. For them the Easter Rising was not only about Irish freedom and sovereignty it was also about women’s freedom and sovereignty.
In the lead up to the 1918 elections women lobbied male leaders in Sinn Fein asking them to ensure there was a gender quota in the elections. However, only two women were put forward: Countess Markievicz for St Patrick’s Ward in Dublin, and Winifred Carney for the unwinnable seat in East Belfast. It was assumed that Maud Gonne and Katherine Clarke would be included, but they were not, and as Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington was offered an unwinnable seat she declined to stand (10).
In fact, there was confusion about whether women could stand as candidates at all and the Sinn Féin convention passed a resolution stating that no candidate should stand “other than a man who took part of the fight of Easter Week”. As a result, women’s preparation for candidacy was rushed with suffragists working tirelessly to support the two women candidates, putting up posters, giving speeches and organising numerous meetings and rallies. Already, women were being left behind by the male leadership in Sinn Fein.
On the day that Markievicz’s election was declared, The Irish Citizen, newspaper triumphantly proclaimed: ‘And so Ireland again leads the way, and while Britain wallows in reaction and turns her back on woman MPs, Ireland proudly writes “Progress” on her banner to show the world how much in advance she is of those who would rule her (11).
Sadly, as we know, that progress towards gender equality was short-lived for Irish women, following independence the new state’s deep conservatism, patriarchal control and influence of the Catholic Church pushed women back into their homes. It would be another 60 years before Ireland had its second woman minister, Maire Geoghan Quinn. Today, women make up 22% of the Dail, 30% of the Seanad and only four of 15 ministers.
Of course in recent years there have been many important achievements made towards women’s rights, not least two inspirational women Presidents, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese. Other developments towards gender equality include: the Repeal of the 8th Amendment giving women access to their full reproductive rights through access to legal and safe abortions; Marriage Equality creating legislation enabling same sex marriages; Waking the Feminists raising awareness of bias in theatres towards male playwrights, directors, and producers; the Parliamentary Gender Quota system (12), which led to gains in the numbers of women parliamentarians in one election cycle from 13% to 22%. And, the less well known Irish National Action Plan on Women, Peace & Security, which commits to the inclusion and participation of women in Ireland’s foreign policies on international peacekeeping, development, and humanitarian aid. (13)
And so I will end with the words of one of Ireland’s foremost suffragists, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington:
‘There can be no true democracy when the voice of half the community is silent in Parliament…The challenge to the party system has been made by the Independent women; their election campaign has set the public thinking […] When next an election comes, the seed sown should be ready to germinate – the seed beneath the snow – seeds of new growths, that lie for a while submerged, but living’. (14)
What is the best way to honour these women on this celebratory day and throughout the centenary commemorations? By taking strength from their achievements and by continuing the fight for women’s full equality at home and abroad.
Footnotes:
1 – The Representation of the People Act 1918 gave all men over the age of 21 the right to vote. Women Ireland gained full suffrage in 1922, women in the UK did not achieve full suffrage until 1928.
2 – Mary McAuliffe, Margaret Ward, Sinead McCoole, Liz Gillis amongst many others.
4 – Later she moved to Paris where she met her future husband the Polish artist Count Casimir Dunin Markievicz (1898). It was in 1908, she became actively involved in the Irish Republican Movement, joining Sinn Fein and the women’s suffrage organisation set up by Maud Gonne, Inghinidhe na hEireann (Daughters of Ireland).
5 – Benedict Anderson, 1991, ‘Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism’.
12 – The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act: Gender quotas allow parties’ state funding to be cut by 50% unless 30% of candidates are women. The threshold will increase to 40 per cent from 2023 onwards. Up to and including the 2011 general election, the proportion of women in Dáil Éireann never exceeded 16 per cent. This was despite significant socio-cultural change over the past thirty years and the presence of a proportional electoral system, factors usually associated with facilitating women’s representation.
13 – The Women, Peace & Security (WPS) Agenda recognises ‘the unique and disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls, and the importance of their participation in decision-making in conflict and post-conflict situations. Ireland’s National Action Plan is based on four pillars: Prevention of Conflict, including Gender- Based Violence (GBV) and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA); Empowerment and Participation of Women in decision making; Protection, Relief and Recovery, and other violations of Women’s Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in relief, recovery and rehabilitation; and Promotion of WPS’. https://www.dfa.ie/our-role-policies/international-priorities/peace-and-security/women-peace-and-security/ 2018.
14 – Quote by Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 1943, on having stood as Independent candidate in the 1943 Dail election.
The Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs (GEIA) is pleased to announce the soft launch of a photo exhibition titled “Celebrating 2019: The Year of Women in Politics” at the Elliott School of International Affairs. The exhibition will run from January 15th to March 29th, 2019, with a more formal launch/reception and panel discussion in celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) 2019 during the week of March 8th(additional details to follow).
This exhibition celebrates women politicians and political activists from across the United States and the globe who have taken on leadership roles and campaigned on the issues they are passionate about. It is part of a series of events led by GEIA to mark IWD, March 8th. It highlights the importance of gender balance in government as a necessary step toward creating gender equality and ending discrimination.
Each of these women, in her own way, has smashed through a glass ceiling and striven to have her voice heard and valued, providing a new style of leadership and vision of how politics can be done. They represent a series of ‘firsts’: by running in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections for the first time, winning a seat in Congress or the Senate, or by leading the #MeToo campaign in their country.
The theme for IWD 2019 is #BalanceforBetter, whichcalls on women and men to come together and campaign for gender balance. How will you help make a difference in 2019? Join the conversation on Twitter @ElliottGEIA with the hashtags #GEIA_IWD_2019 #MeToo.
Stay tuned for information about GEIA/IWD 2019 events.
Kalpana Kochhar will be joining GEIA’s new advisory group. Ms. Kochhar was appointed Director of the Human Resources Department (HRD) at the International Monetary Fund in June 2016. Prior to that, she was Deputy Director in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department. Between 2012 and 2014, she was Deputy Director in the IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department.
Before starting her career at the IMF, Ms. Kochhar was Assistant Professor at the George Washington University. She then joined the IMF’s Economist Program in 1988, assigned to the Asia and Pacific Department (APD). She worked on various country assignments in APD for six years before moving to the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department (SPR). In 1997, she returned to APD, where she was promoted to Assistant Director in 2003. While in APD, she led work on Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, and Nepal, and has also covered China, Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
In 2004, Ms. Kochhar moved to the IMF’s Research Department (RES) as a Senior Advisor, working closely with then Chief Economist Raghu Rajan, before returning to APD in 2008. In 2010, she left the IMF to join the World Bank as Chief Economist for the South Asia Region. She returned to the Fund in 2012, joining SPR as Deputy Director to lead work on the Triennial Surveillance Review, and then moved back to APD in 2014.
Ms. Kochhar also has extensive institutional experience. She served as Senior Personnel Manager in RES for two years, and again in APD during the downsizing of the IMF in 2006–08. She is currently a member of the Diversity Council, and also serves on the personnel Review Committee—appointments she also held before her move to the World Bank.
She has published extensively on a range of topics, including emerging markets, jobs and growth, gender and inequality issues and structural reforms, India and other Asian economies, and regional integration in South Asia. She currently leads the Fund’s work on jobs and growth, and has conducted groundbreaking research on gender inequality and its impact on the macro economy. She will continue to co-lead the Fund’s work on gender from HRD.
Ms. Kochhar holds a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from the Universities of Madras and Delhi, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University.
Elizabeth is the policy and partnerships lead for the gender unit at the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping/Department of Field Services. Prior to joining DPKO in September 2018, she was founding Head of UN Women’s Washington, D.C Liaison Office, where she significantly advanced the profile of UN Women with the U.S. Government and foreign policy community in Washington.
Elizabeth was previously seconded by UN Women to the UN World Humanitarian Summit, where she was Gender Advisor, overseeing the agreement of a groundbreaking package of commitments to women and girls in humanitarian settings. Immediately prior to joining the UN, Elizabeth directed UN advocacy for the Women’s Refugee Commission in New York, working closely with the Security Council to increase its engagement on the protection and empowerment of displaced women and girls, and before that managed an international research study on sex trafficking from a health and human rights perspective at Massachusetts General Hospital. Elizabeth spent eight years working in London on international development and women’s empowerment issues, including as founding director of Women for Women International’s U.K. office.
Elizabeth holds a MSc in Women Studies and International Development from the University of York, U.K. and a BA in Political Science from the College of the Holy Cross. She is a board member of the Global Give Back Circle, which supports at risk girls in Africa, India, and China and is on the MacDowell Colony’s Young Friends Steering Committee.
Sanola A. Daley an Elliott School M.A. alumna ’08, will be joining GEIA’s new advisory group. Sanola is currently the Global Women’s Employment Lead in Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services at the International Finance Corporation.
She is highly skilled in using innovative approaches to engage organizations on women’s employment, gender equality and inclusive leadership. She is also passionate about the Caribbean and her home (Jamaica), as it inspires her to work on development issues such as women’s leadership, youth engagement and environmental sustainability. She is most comfortable in multicultural environments, and enjoys coordinating events and cultivating meaningful relationships.
Check out The GW Hatchet’s piece about GEIA’s co-sponsored film screening of“The Mask You Live In” and discussion featuring former NFL quarterback Don McPherson. More than 200 students came together Monday night to confront a topic often left out of the conversation about campus assault: toxic masculinity.
The discussion – the first of its kind at GW – was co-sponsored by the Student Association, the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association, GW Athletics, the Global Women’s Institute and the Multicultural Student Services Center – groups that have never before all collaborated on one event. Organizers also worked with Promundo, a gender justice organization that focuses on how men and boys can become partners in issues about gender inequality.
On the 5th and 8th of March (International Women’s Day), 10 remarkable female Elliott School Alumnae took part in two conversations about “Pathways to Success: Women’s Career Accomplishments,” moderated by GEIA Director Dr. Shirley Graham.
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day was #PressforProgress. Data shows that when women are more present and participating in leadership roles, more women are hired right across the board at all levels. Panelists urged students not to let self-doubt get in the way of applying for jobs, promotions, asking for a pay raise, or taking a leap into a new field, as few people feel 100% ready for their next move.
Panelists also shared their experiences and responses to the #MeToo movement and sex discrimination in the workplace more broadly. For example, panelist Jenna Ben-Yehuda created the Women’s Foreign Policy Network and co-authored the #MeTooNatSec (national security) letter. The authors of the letter are pushing for a conversational shift towards prevention and constructive solutions such as multiple channels for women to report incidences without retribution, mandatory exit interviews for all women leaving federal service, and a clear message from leadership that these behaviors won’t be tolerated.
“Success is in the detail and this means doing focused work, providing specific information, and strategizing to achieve your goals. It is through hard work and a belief in the value of what you do that will get you to the top” said panelist Maura Leary of The World Bank. The International Women’s Day seminars were hosted by the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs (GEIA) and co-sponsored by The Elliott School, GSS, LEAP, and the GWI.
GEIA (Director, Dr. Shirley Graham, and Program Associate, Danielle Cyr) brought seven graduate students to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 62nd Sessions at the UN in New York. Pictured from left to right are GEIA Director Dr. Shirley Graham, and M.A. candidates Pratyusha Sibal and Neia Omer.
The graduate students in attendance are students in International Affairs, Development Studies and International Public Policy who participate in Prof. Graham’s courses on Global Gender Policy and Gender, War & Peace.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it was established by Council resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946.
The group attended a series of side events organised by Permanent Missions, UN entities and NGOs. Dr. Shirley Graham noted that “attendance at the 62nd Session of the CSW provided our students with a first-hand opportunity to engage directly with influencers and policymakers on key issues affecting women’s lives, as well as deepening their understanding of the mechanics of global gender policymaking”.
“Women from rural communities are not adequately represented at policy level and when they are included they are often talked at rather than listened to. There can be a preoccupation with the numbers of women attending meetings rather than efforts to understanding the multiplicity of roles women play in their communities, particularly leadership roles. Governments need to create more opportunities for women from rural communities to actively participate in decision-making on the issues that impact their daily lives” – Dr. Shirley Graham.
GEIA director Dr. Shirley Graham was invited by the Irish Ambassador to the U.S. to attend a private dinner with former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, who was also the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and is now a passionate Climate Change and Gender Advocate.
