Bespoke Secondary Schools’ Workshop
- Encourage more young women to see politics as a possible career path
- Examine the national and local picture
- Slideshow presentation, questionnaire, videos plus a Q & A session
- Diversity and balanced decision making
- Active Citizenship
- Voter Education: New PR- STV video explains the voting system in Ireland
- Day-to-day life of a County Councillor with the lived experience of a female councillor from the area
Political Education Series
The See Her Elected Schools’ Workshop is part of a political education series which aims to encourage diversity in county council chambers in rural areas throughout the country.
We have already visited a number of secondary schools in the country in a bid to encourage discussion around the need for more young women and more diversity in the make-up of county councils. Presentations have taken place in Coláiste Mhuire, Ballygar; Roscommon Community College; Ballyhaunis Community School, Roscommon Convent of Mercy and Eureka Secondary School in County Meath.
We want to see more diversity in our rural county council chambers. As it stands, there are very few women councillors and virtually no representation of minority communities. Our aim is to increase the numbers of women in local politics in rural counties where anything from 78% to 95% of the elected local authority councillors are men. We need our chambers to be more reflective of society and we need to see more women in politics in order to have more balanced decision making.
As part of our political education series, we deliver a presentation for students from senior classes to encourage them to critically engage with See Her Elected’s work and the outcomes from having Council Chambers that do not reflect what the communities they represent look like. See Her Elected’s aim is to engage with students to increase their awareness and understanding of gender inequality in politics as well as encouraging them to get their names on the Register of Electors. Some schools have Politics & Society as a subject but even if schools don’t have these subjects, it’s a fantastic opportunity to get students thinking about why the current status quo needs to change.
Many 5th and 6th year students will be able to vote in the next Local Elections in 2024 so they are the ideal age group to address and the feedback and positive engagement from students has been fantastic. We have lots of information to share and some great videos and each presentation is tailored to the specific county.
Schools interested in having the See Her Elected Schools’ Roadshow visit their school can email communications@seeherelected.ie for more information
