It wasn't the dinosaurs that became extinct
My condolences to the family of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) who died peacefully in her sleep this week. I never supported the Coalition myself but neither did I bear it any ill will. A the time of its passing, it seems right to find a few nice words to say about the deceased.
To me, the Coalition symbolises a more optimistic time, when lasting peace and local self-rule seemed possible. The NIWC was formed in the run-up to the negotiation elections of 1996 to give voice to Northern Ireland’s (NI) oppressed majority community - women. It won two seats at the talks, a result which it repeated in the assembly election two years later before being wiped out in the 2003 poll.
Though small, the Coalition contributed a lot to the negotiations which led up to the Good Friday Agreement, chiefly by acting as agony aunt to its fellow minnows, the loyalist fringe parties. It was the first party in NI’s history which was truly neutral on the border, unlike the Alliance party which makes great play of its 'cross-community' credentials despite being pro-union.
Simply by their presence, the NIWC’s representatives exposed the shocking misogyny of some unionist politicians who would interrupt their speeches with cow impressions. As the first gendered party to win seats anywhere in the world, the NIWC helped to change the old boys’ club that was NI politics.
The mainstream parties soon took note, making greater effort to promote their female members. Before the Coalition came along, NI had no woman MPs, now there are three. During the periodic bouts of self-government at the turn of the century, NI had female ministers for health, agriculture and higher education.
The day when me and women are equally represented in NI politics is still a long way off, but the NIWC brought it nearer. It is right to aim for 50/50 gender representation, not because women are better than men, but because, roughly speaking, a legislative should mirror the society it rules.
And I suppose that’s my problem with the Coalition. It seems to me that the unspoken rationale of the party was that the world would be a better place if women were in charge, something I don't accept. A leader is not good simply because she is female. I have a lot of time for Helen Clark and Aung San Suu Kyi. But I wouldn’t give Margaret Thatcher or Mary Harney the time of day. What politics needs is not more women per se, but rather more people who agree with me, whatever their genitalia.
Women can be just as bad as men. All of us from NI bear some responsibility for the violence. Those who actually pulled triggers and planted bombs bear the heaviest burden, followed by those who cheered them on and those who brought up their children to hate. But even those of us who consider ourselves impeccably pacifist and non-sectarian must shoulder some of the blame, for being too lazy or cowardly to do anything about it. NI’s suffering is not just the responsibility of the paramilitaries, who were almost entirely male, but of everybody, regardless of gender.