See Her Elected has launched a Live Local Elections Tracker, which calculates that a total of 677 female candidates will contest this year’s Local Elections. The organisation has welcomed the fact that a record number of women will put their names on ballot papers on June 7th due in part to their training and support which has helped provided a gate way for women in rural Ireland into local politics.
Following the close of nominations, a total of 677 women have declared their intention of running as candidates in this year’s local elections on June 7th which accounts for 31% of the overall number of candidates. This is a marked increase since 2009 which female candidates accounted for just 17.2% of overall candidates and also in 2019 when women made up 28.4% of overall candidates.
See Her Elected has cross referenced their own database to the Returning Officer’s Notice of Polls in each Local Authority throughout the country and while the names of 681 women will appear on ballot papers this June, 3 women are running in multiple Local Electoral Areas, which means there are 677 actual female candidates in real terms.
See Her Elected’s Live Local Election Tracker tracks the number of female candidates on a county-by-county basis from the 2014 local elections to the current 2024 Local Elections. (https://www.seeherelected.ie/local-elections-2024/)
A breakdown of See Her Elected’s statistics show that almost 40% of the total number of female candidates running for election this year availed of support, training or resources from the organisation. Female candidates are running in 164 Local Electoral Areas throughout the country with the exception of Moate in County Westmeath and Corca Dhuibhne in County Kerry where there are no women on the ballot papers.
See Her Elected’s statistics show that the highest number of female candidates are running in the Dublin and commuter belt area with female candidates accounting for 45% in Dun Laoighre Rathdown; 38.3% in Dublin City and 38.7% in South Dublin. County Roscommon has the lowest number of female candidates at just 16% while in County Mayo where there are currently only two sitting female County Councillors out of 30, only 19% of candidates for this year’s local elections are female. Other counties which have stubbornly low levels of female representation in local politics include Co Monaghan where only 22% of local election candidates are female; Longford with 27% of female candidates and Wexford where just 24% of candidates for this year’s local elections are women. Only three out of the sitting 18 councillors in County Leitrim are women but the county is bucking the trend for Local Elections 2024, with women accounting for 37% of local election candidates there.
Cabra/Glasnevin has the highest number of female candidates of any Local Electoral Area in the country with 10 women running out of a total of 21 candidates. Both Kinnegad and Portlaoise Local Electoral Areas also feature high numbers of female candidates with 9 women running in each area.
A record number of women (106) or 15% are running as Independents in this year’s Local Elections. Sinn Féin is the party with the highest number of female candidates (150) or 22% followed by Fine Gael accounting for 14% of female candidates (98); Fianna Fáil at 13% (90); Green Party at 9.6% (65); Labour at 6.6% (45); Social Democrats at 5.7% (39); Aontú account for 3.6% of female candidates (25); People Before Profit-Solidarity at 3.2% (22). Smaller parties account for 37 female candidates or 5.5%.
Programme Manager with See Her Elected Dr Michelle Maher said that the record number of women running in this year’s local elections demonstrates the wonderful success story of See Her Elected and the creation of a gateway for women in rural Ireland into politics.
“See Her Elected has enjoyed phenomenal growth and success in a relatively short time frame in preparing women, and the women in their campaign teams, for the 2024 local elections as well as laying the groundwork for 2029 and beyond.
“It’s heartening to see that almost 40% of the women who have declared their intention to run for this year’s Local Elections have availed of training or support from See Her Elected.
“We are extremely proud and humbled to have played an instrumental role in creating a gateway for women in rural Ireland into local politics through our free online election workshops and also through the publication of Ireland’s first ever ‘Guide to Running in the Local Elections,” said Dr Maher.
Dr Michelle Maher, Program Manager with See Her Elected and Mairead O'Shea, Communications Manager with See Her Elected. Ger Rogers Photo.
Communications Manager with See Her Elected Mairead O’ Shea said that the organisation supports women from rural Ireland to become county councillors and she pointed out that the first online training with SHESchool began in May 2020 with 46 women registered.
“From that modest base, SHE continued to gain traction, and to date over 1,000 women from every county in Ireland have registered for our training modules. Some of the women who attended our training are working as campaign managers for candidates while others wanted to learn more about local government.
“Since 2020 See Her Elected has also engaged with thousands of women across the country through our in-person events including seminars, local authority collaborations, secondary school workshops and communications masterclasses with political party women’s networks and caucuses,” continued Mairead.
The Government funded programme which is managed by Longford Women’s Link and is an initiative between them and 50:50 North West, is hoping to see an increase in the number of women elected to county councils after this year’s local elections in June.
CEO of Longford Women’s Link, Tara Farrell said: “Currently only 26 % of councillors in the country are women but with a record number of women running in this year’s local elections we are hoping to see a shift in the dial with an upwards trend. However, it is important to point out that this stark under representation of women in local government is a deeply entrenched pattern over many decades so it may take a number of election cycles to reach any sort of 50/50 parity.”
“Supporting women to engage with local democratic structures in rural communities has always been a key focus of Longford Women’s Link and LWL is very proud to manage the delivery of the SHE Programme,” said Tara.
Dr. Michelle Maher, Mairead O'Shea, Kathleen O'Mara with Tara Farrell, Longford Women's Link. Photo Brian Farrell
A number of key counties are on See Her Elected’s Watch List for Local Elections 2024 where they are hoping to see increases in the number of women elected.
County Leitrim: There were only six female candidates in 2014 and now 13 women running for local elections in 2024. Only three out of the 18 seats in Co Leitrim are held by women.
County Louth: 11 women ran for election in County Louth in 2014 and this has increased to 28 female candidates in 2024. Currently 9 out of 29 seats on Louth County Council are held by women.
County Mayo: With 14 women going forward for election in June it is hoped to see an increase in the number of female councillors with women only holding 2 out of 30 seats.
County Waterford: In 2019 two women were elected to Waterford City & County Council. Currently 23 women are running here so hopes are high for an increase of female councillors.
County Carlow: Twice as many female candidates running in 2024 (12) compared to just six female candidates in 2019 so also hoping for increases here.
