The Lag Effect of Peace? Women’s Representation in the Northern Ireland Assembly

• In Event: Political Conflict and Competition in Ireland

Abstract

Politics in Northern Ireland has traditionally been highly gendered with women under-represented in most elected bodies throughout “The Troubles.” The first decades of the post-conflict period had only a modest impact on women’s representation. However, the 2017 election to the Northern Ireland Assembly resulted in a record number of women being elected; 30% of MLAs now are female, up from 14% in the first election after the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. This paper explores this dramatic transformation in levels of female representation in Northern Ireland by looking at candidate selection processes and election results in Northern Ireland elections, comparing trends between elections held before the start of peace process and more recent contests when elections had become routine features of the post-conflict period. Using Northern Ireland Assembly elections, we focus on how many women candidates are selected and how many women are ultimately elected in this first-order electoral model. This paper will consider various factors that could influence selected women candidates and their representative levels, including the impact of political parties but also geography, focusing especially on rural/urban features of Northern Ireland constituencies

Authors

• Timothy J. White, Xavier University

• Kimberly B. Cowell-Meyers, American University