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Justin Trudeau's gender-balanced cabinet could teach Ireland a thing or two

The new Canadian Prime Minister’s decision has seen him roundly applauded – but he’s not without his detractors.

canada cabinet AJ+ AJ+

IF YOU WANT to live in a country where political power isn’t overwhelmingly controlled by one type of person, then move to Canada.

Unlike Ireland, Canada now has equal numbers of men and women in cabinet, thanks to a young new Prime Minister, the Liberal Party’s Justin Trudeau, who’s showing that politics can change – if the people in power want it to.

Trudeau set out to fill his 30-strong cabinet with equal numbers of men and women, and succeeded. It’s a move which only serves to highlight the lack of women – and minorities – in other cabinets worldwide.

The state of play

20/10/2015 Cabinet Meetings Photocall Ireland Photocall Ireland

Here in Ireland, we have five women and 12 men in cabinet. In the Dáil, there is a paltry 16% female representation. That’s the highest it has ever been.

According to the CSO, women accounted for less than a fifth of members of local authorities in 2013. Meanwhile, the average female representation in national parliaments in the EU was 27.5% in that same year.

Trudeau’s cabinet is also remarkable because, as he put it, it represents Canada. Not just white Canadians. Members of the First Nations tribes will see themselves in Jody Wilson-Raybould, the new Minister of Justice; former refugees will see themselves in new Minister of Democractic Institutions, Maryam Monsef, who hails from Afghanistan; fathers will see themselves in Jean-Yves Duclos, the new minister of Families, Children, and Social Development; Canadians of Indian descent or of colour may see themselves in Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi.

Criteria for Canadian cabinet already means that there must be at least one minister from each of the country’s 10 provinces.

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There are young MPs, older MPs, MPs of different abilities, faiths, backgrounds, colours, ethnicities in Trudeau’s cabinet.

There is a doctor, a former soldier, a lawyer, a Paralympian, and a geoscientist.

Asked to explain why he chose to have a gender-balanced cabinet, Trudeau replied: “Because it’s 2015.”

He spoke, too, of wanting a better future for children across the country.

US Trudeau AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

What better future than to see yourself reflected in those who look after your country, who approve the laws, who advocate on behalf of citizens, who discuss the most important issues that affect people’s everyday lives?

Despite what some might argue, having a gender-balanced and ethnically diverse cabinet is not paying lip service to feminists; it’s not somehow damaging to a country; it’s not ‘quotas gone mad’; it does not mean the end of politics as we know it. Let’s not forget that Trudeau chose to impose this gender-balance ‘quota’ himself.

The notion of being threatened by a diverse selection of people making decisions that affect a diverse population only speaks to the fear that people have not just of change, but of losing power.

Traditionally, the balance of power has been with men, not just in Irish politics, but also in politics around the world. There are those who don’t want to see this lopsided balance shift to include others. There are those who fear the change in the status quo.

Gender equality and fair representation of minorities in politics doesn’t mean a country will be perfect – but it means that more people’s voices will be heard at the top.

What about merit?

AJ+ / YouTube

In choosing his cabinet, Trudeau – whose own father was Prime Minister too, and who didn’t just wander out of a barn and into his post – did not pluck a few names out of a hat.

He had 50 female and 134 male MPs to choose from, who were spread throughout the country. As Bloomberg points out, in some areas, the Liberals only elected men.

The new PM chose people who were qualified for their roles, people with experience, people who could benefit from experience (because why should every politician come with years of experience? Can they not use their skills and learn as they do their job?).

He chose people he trusted, but he also trusted himself in not having to toe the line and retain some of the old guard. He was willing to leave long-standing members of parliament out of cabinet in order to let fresh blood in.

It remains to be seen how successful the cabinet is at realising the Liberal party’s aims, but that’s not the immediate issue.

Politics is for everybody

22/7/2015. Cabinet Meetings At Lissadell Cabinet meeting at Lissadell Eamonn Farrell Eamonn Farrell

The immediate issue is how a move like this is a gamechanger in Canada. It’s saying that politics is for everybody. It’s not just for one gender. It’s not just for people from one ethnic background, or ability, or sexuality.

It means that in discussions in cabinet, the viewpoints of people from these different backgrounds will be represented. It means people’s eyes will be opened to the experiences of others, that laws won’t be made or approved just based on the experience of one type of person.

It means, for example, that an indigenous person in Canada can trust that a member of cabinet knows their history, shares their experience – and that they won’t be forgotten about or dismissed. In a country that has been criticised for not dealing properly with Aboriginal citizens (and where hundreds of indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing over the past 50 years), this is a huge thing.

Look around the streets where you live. You’ll see people of different genders, faiths, identities, appearances, abilities. Ireland is a multi-cultural country now, but it’s a country that has always had men and women living in it, even if a look at our politicians could have convinced us that women were a rarity.

We don’t have a huge amount of diversity in the Dáil, and yet our politicians represent a diverse and changing country.

It is a country where people of the same sex can marry. It is a country where you can have a strong religion or none.

There can be no drawback to having a government that reflects the diversity of the country it represents. Democracy is about everyone’s voice being heard, but if some voices are heard louder than others, that can lead to decisions that are not in the best interests of everyone. It can also lead to citizens feeling ignored and unwanted.

Women in politics

3/12/2013. Women For Election Reviews Women For Election Reviews in 2013 samboal samboal

With no major change in the gender balance of our Dáil, we have resorted to quotas in Ireland. They are not a perfect solution. But they are proof that affirmative action is sometimes needed, when change has not yet happened (despite our strong feminist history in Ireland).

To achieve gender parity in Irish politics, we need more women to enter politics – which is why groups like Women for Election have been set up.

But the saying ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ is a powerful one. If women don’t see themselves reflected in the current political structures, and when they witness sexism in the very Dáil itself, it is no wonder that some women baulk at the idea of entering politics.

And yet, perhaps a cabinet like Trudeau’s shows that all it takes is a person with power – a person with vision; a person willing to throw off the shackles of tradition – to evoke major change.

Trudeau made a promise last June, and he lived up to it. Unfortunately, we know from experience that’s not always something we can count in politics.

We can’t ‘do a Trudeau’ in Ireland just yet. We simply don’t have the diversity at Dáil level, though we are starting to see more diversity at a local government level.

The issue of unconscious bias in politics also needs to be acknowledged and addressed – why not follow the move of multinationals like Google and Airbnb, who are training their staff to understand how unconscious bias can affect their decisions.

So what can we do? We can learn from his lesson – and decide whether we really want to see a Dáil full of very similar people, or one that is as diverse as the people who make up the population of this island.

We can use our voice, use our vote, or use our feet to enter the political fray ourselves. Ireland is changing. Politics has to change, too.

Read: 9 times when Irish politics has been really sexist>

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98 Comments
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    Mute James
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:55 PM

    Warehouse in Ireland please. Having to wait for parcels to ship from UK is not good enough.

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    Mute Mike
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    Dec 1st 2014, 1:48 PM

    Amazons high tech jobs are based in Dublin. The companies warehouses are based in Britain. It’s cheaper than Ireland.

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    Mute See My Vest
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    Dec 1st 2014, 2:14 PM

    Yeah that 1 day prime service is shocking! If I order something now I won’t have it until tomorrow ffs!

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    Mute Paddy Hannigan
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    Dec 1st 2014, 2:54 PM

    Amazon consider Ireland as part of the UK geographicaly for business reasons while for delivery reasons they consider NI and The Republic to be the same.I worked there and it used to provide endless hours of fun trying to explain the situation to idiot ‘nationalists and unionists’ who would take offence to this.Then added to that for tax they are registered in Lux.Most likely they will open a hub here at some point but most items will still have to come from the UK. There just isn’t the population here to justify a warehouse system big enough to hold 17m items.

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    Mute Leslie Skinner
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    Dec 1st 2014, 11:55 AM

    More people out of a job

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    Mute Leopold Dedalus
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:02 PM

    “hiring 80,000 seasonal workers to meet the coming onslaught of holiday orders.”

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    Mute Simon Barnes
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:03 PM

    are they? some might be out of a job running around the floor picking items. but someone has to look after the robots, repair them and even build them so jobs are created as well.

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    Mute deerhounddog
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:12 PM

    Simon,that’s a very short term view.

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    Mute Simon Barnes
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:13 PM

    how so. remember back in the 80′s when computers were being brought into the office and work place and we were all supposed to be out of jobs?

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    Mute deerhounddog
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:33 PM

    Simon, they are doing a physical job that only people could do. You can be very sure that any of these working in these huge spaces will have a very long lifespan unlike anything that will be for sale in the future in PC World etc for the home.

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    Mute Jason
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:39 PM

    Did you actually read the article?

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    Mute Simon Barnes
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:43 PM

    ” They are doing a physical job that only people could do” — bit of a contradiction there

    I work in this area (electrical / mechanical IT support) if they have 3000 robots then they need a good load of people to back them up. I would very much doubt that 3000 people were let go to be replaced by 3000 machines.
    Machines that run for 24 hours a day need weekly / monthly PM’s. Software upgrades, cleaning and replacing. so while they have a long life span they are continually being looked after unlike your house hold appliances that only get service when they break down,
    Support jobs are also much better paid than picking jobs. And at the end of the day, shouldn’t we be using robots and machines to do the more mundane tasks and upgrading our human work force for the better.

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    Mute J
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:50 PM

    Simon the robots will become self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th and repair themselves. Only a matter of time.

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    Mute deerhounddog
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    Dec 1st 2014, 1:03 PM

    Jason,Simon. The PEOPLE that did this job last year are highly unlikely to be be servicing these robots. They have most likely been told that there is no work for them. Not everyone has the capacity to up skill. Amazon and those who follow them have not got the welfare of their seasonal workers in mind and are not trying impress ye, they have long term wage bill reductions driving this practice.

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    Mute Daragh O'Mahony
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    Dec 1st 2014, 1:19 PM

    Its called progress….

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    Mute ChocSaltyBallz
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    Dec 1st 2014, 9:44 PM

    Jesusdittyfcukinchrist they took are jobs !

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    Mute deerhounddog
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:10 PM

    To help the employees, who are they kidding. To CUT THE WAGE BILL.
    PR*cks

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    Mute Benito Rossolini
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    Dec 1st 2014, 1:00 PM

    Johnny 5

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    Mute Frank
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:07 PM

    Irish Water is currently drafting up an army of robots in the form of precision electronic meters to “help” distribute something which is of a basic right.

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    Mute Frank
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:23 PM

    Correction: “help” control something which is of a basic right.

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    Mute Jason
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:40 PM

    Ffs, read this so as not to hear about IW, not everything should be brought back to water. Getting very boring now.

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    Mute Aidan Duggan
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    Dec 1st 2014, 11:59 AM

    My thoughts exactly.

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    Mute Moonshine
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    Dec 1st 2014, 12:41 PM

    What are your thoughts, pray tell?

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    Mute justanothertaxpayer
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    Dec 1st 2014, 3:39 PM

    I am thinking he was just missing an ellipses…
    His thoughts are centred around precision.

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    Mute Steve M
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    Dec 1st 2014, 4:11 PM

    With everything getting automated and a growing world population, what happens when there aren’t enough jobs for everybody? A genuine question….maybe we will be starship troopers.

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