Why are so many women councillors choosing not to run again?

More than three times as many women councillors say they’re not standing again for a seat on Dublin City Council on 7 June, as in the 2019 local elections.

In 2019, nine people who were still councillors at the end of the five-year council term decided not to stand again, three of them women. In 2024, at least 14 councillors are not standing again, 10 of those women.

This means a third of women now on the council say they’re not standing again, while only an eighth of men say the same.

There should be research done into why “many female Councillors are leaving politics and what can be done to encourage their retention”, independent Councillor Mannix Flynn proposed at a 4 April protocol committee meeting.

The minutes of the meeting say the council manager agreed to raise the matter with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. But it hasn’t done that yet, a spokesperson said by email on 2 May.

The nomination period for the local elections is 11 May to 18 May, and it’s not until that’s over that there will be an official list of who is standing and who is not.

“The Manager is awaiting confirmation of numbers of Councillors not seeking re-election before contacting the Department,” the spokesperson said.

Women councillors who say they’ve decided not to stand again gave a range of reasons, from frustration with working within a slow cumbersome system in which they have limited powers, to low pay.

The numbers

Eight councillors elected to Dublin City Council in 2014 didn’t serve, or didn’t finish the council term in 2019.

Six became TDs, and one became a senator. And then there’s Sinn Féin Councillor Jonathan Dowdall, who resigned, backtracked, resigned again, and was later convicted of kidnapping and torturing a man, and for facilitating a murder.

These elected councillors were replaced by party colleagues who were “co-opted” onto the council to serve in their places.

When that council term wound down, 23 of 63 councillors were women. Nine councillors didn’t stand again in the 2019 local election, including three women.

During the 2019 to 2024 council term, 13 members didn’t serve or didn’t finish the council term. Five became TDs, two became senators, one became an MEP, one retired, and three resigned.

And then there’s independent Councillor Anthony Flynn, who died in 2021, not long after it came to light police were investigating two allegations of sexual assault against him. After an inquest, the coroner recorded the cause of death as suicide.

Of the councillors who have finished the five-year term, 14 are not standing again, including 10 of 31 women on the council.

Who’s not standing

Those councillors not standing again include a significant Labour contingent: Deborah Byrne, Kevin Donoghue, Alison Gilliland, Jane Horgan-Jones, and Mary Freehill.

That’s more than half the Labour group on Dublin City Council. The party has eight seats on the council, but nine councillors, it seems.

Although Freehill stepped down “on a temporary basis” a year ago, and her party colleague Fiona Connelly was co-opted to replace her, Freehill is still listed as a councillor on the council’s website.

Freehill said by WhatsApp last week she’s on sick leave until June, when the council term ends.

Last month, a Business Post/Red C poll of 1,027 adults found that only 3 percent said they intended to give a Labour candidate a first preference. In April 2019, that number was 5 percent.

The others not standing are Social Democrats councillors Tara Deacy and Patricia Roe,  Fine Gael councillors Anne Feeney and Paddy McCartan, Fianna Fáil councillors Michael Watters and Claire O’Connor, and independent councillors Noeleen Reilly and Damien O’Farrell.

A “male culture”?

Flynn, the independent councillor, said he raised the issue of women councillors not standing again because he’s “deeply concerned” about it.

What’s behind it? “Besides the hostility on the streets, and on social media, there’s a lack of support from male colleagues,” he said.

“DCC [Dublin City Council] is highly dominated by a male culture, every part of it,” Flynn said.

Has Flynn himself been quite hard on his women colleagues on the council? “Politics is a robust situation, nothing that I do is about sexism,” he says.

Flynn isn’t the only one to raise the issue of council culture disadvantaging women councillors.

Talking about councillors’ working relationships with council managers last month, People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin said, “I think that’s very much pushed on women councillors to stop complaining.”

And Green Party Councillor Michael Pidgeon said that, “Certainly the informal, clubby nature helps some men, more than it helps women.”

Of the 63 councillors finishing the term – not including Anthony Flynn but including Mary Freehill – 31 are women.

At the end of last year, 62 percent of the council’s senior managers were men, and 38 percent were women, according to council figures.

But women councillors who said they weren’t standing again didn’t focus on these things when explaining their reasons.

Reasons: Retirement, harassment, and the move to online meetings

Freehill, the Labour councillor now on sick leave, said “I’m retiring after 42 years on the council. I think I have done my time!”

Fine Gael Councillor Anne Feeney, who has been on the council since 2016, said she felt it was someone else’s turn.

But Feeney, like others, also said there were multiple factors that played into their decision not to stand again.

She mentioned “online abuse”, an issue highlighted by a report last year from the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG).

The AILG, which represents local councillors, surveyed 226 of them, and found that “threats, intimidation and harassment are commonplace”.

“Respondents continue to experience threats of violence, and similar threats are made towards members of their families,” a report based on the survey found. “Threats to damage their car or home, death threats, arson and threats of sexual violence are also being experienced.”

“This has led to over 50% of respondents having considered, or currently considering leaving their role because of threats and harassment,” the report says.

Feeney also said there’d been a change of tone in her interactions with other councillors, due to the move – prompted by Covid-19 – to online meetings.

Rather than meeting in the council chambers, and other venues, for council meetings and committee meetings, councillors generally now convene via hybrid meetings, with some members in the room in person, and some attending online.

Labour Councillor Alison Gilliland also mentioned this change. “One of the things I have sadly noted, since Covid, now that we have hybrid working, there’s some colleagues I haven’t seen since before Covid,” she said.

Reasons: Low pay and frustration with the job

Gilliland said there were two main reasons she’s decided not to stand: the pay, and frustration with the job.

Dublin City Councillors get a salary of €2,393.66 a month, plus subsistence and travel allowance of up to €433.73, plus petty cash and expenses of up to €80.00, plus vouched expenses of up to €350, plus an extra €500 if they chair a strategic policy committee.

The job is supposed to be part-time, but Gilliland said that to do it in the way she wanted to required being involved full-time, “and I can’t live on a councillor’s salary any longer”.

Beyond the pay, she said she was also frustrated with how little autonomy local government has, and how slow and difficult it is to make changes, to get things done.

Green Party Councillor Darcy Lonergan, who isn’t standing again either, also said she was frustrated with the job.

“People are more involved in politics these days, a lot of people enter into consultations, which is great but it slows things down,” Lonergan said.

“I’m a goal-oriented person so I like to see things finished, so this job’s maybe not a good fit for me,” she said.

Lonergan was co-opted to replace Neasa Hourigan, who won a Dáil seat in the 2020 general election. “I didn’t realise going in how slow this would all be.”

A lot of councillors, when they’re leaving, “I think that is the reason, whether they’re male or female,” she said.

Social Democrats Councillor Patricia Roe, who isn’t standing again, also mentioned frustration with the job.

Councillors spend much – if not most – of their time in that role doing “case work”, representing individual constituents trying to access government services.

Often, a resident will contact all their local councillors – five to seven, depending on the area – plus their TDs, asking for help on a matter.

“Is there a need for six councillors to forward on the same rep[resentation], that has been sent to all of us, to council staff?” she asked. “Yes unless you don’t want that person saying – oh Trish Roe never followed up on that reply for me.”

And then, “Most of the time, esp[ecially] if it is in connection with housing, there never is a positive response, so pretty soul destroying!” Roe said.

A pattern or a coincidence?

Is the fact that far more women on the council are choosing not to stand again a pattern or a coincidence?

Lonergan, the chair of the council’s women’s committee, said she preferred to just focus on her own reasons for not standing again.

She’s already been a councillor since 2020. That’s a long time, in her view. She wants to move and get more professional development, she said.

She’s not from Dublin and doesn’t know if she’ll be staying in Dublin, she says. She’s renting now, but would like to buy, and doubts she’ll be able to manage that in the city.

And she’s not sure if she’s going to be having kids in the next five years, she says.

Meanwhile, she’s moved out of the Cabra-Glasnevin local election area she’s representing, she said  “I’m a renter so I go where I can afford the rent and where there’s a place available.”

“There are plenty of really capable people who do live in the area and are embedded in the community, let’s give them a chance,” she says.

Roe, the Social Democrats councillor, said she wasn’t sure if it was a pattern or a coincidence.

“But imo [in my opinion] the 3 hour council meetings held at 6.15 pm certainly are not ‘family friendly’!” she said by WhatsApp.

“A lot of cllrs who have full time jobs have done council work in the evenings – also not great if you have family commitments,” she said.