Making the Assembly a more welcoming place for women

The Assembly and Executive Review Committee today (Thursday 23 October) hosted a special round table event as part of its Inquiry into 'Women and Politics and the Northern Ireland Assembly'.

Today's event brought together participants from the local women's groups as well as representatives from youth groups, trade unions, academia and the public and political sectors to discuss and debate what more can be done to increase the participation of women in the local political landscape.

Speaking after today's event, Committee Chairperson Stephen Moutray MLA said: "Our Inquiry, which started back in June, is something that all Committee members were very keen to carry out. There can be no doubt that, with only 22 female MLAs, making up just 20% of all MLAs, much more needs to be done to encourage the participation of women in public life here.

"Throughout the course of the Inquiry, the Committee has visited the Welsh and Icelandic Parliaments, both of which have put in place very specific and successful initiatives to increase female membership. We have also heard from leading voices in the political, public and women's sectors on what more they feel we can do to make the Assembly and indeed the local political environment a more welcoming place for women.

The Chairperson concluded: "Today's event was the culmination of our evidence gathering and has been extremely beneficial in helping us to understand some of the barriers and challenges faced by local women considering a career in politics and/or public life. It has also demonstrated very clearly that there is much we can do to foster and develop a range of positive initiatives and indeed legislation to increase female representation in politics and decision making roles."