It is now time for candidate gender quotas at local elections, at the same level as the general elections, according to Brian Sheehan, CEO of Women for Election. He claims that councils now need to be pro-active, focussed and strategic over the next three years in identifying, informing and supporting women to consider local government and elections.

Fifty years ago, almost all of Iceland’s women went on strike for a day to ‘demonstrate the indispensable work of women to Iceland’s economy and society’. At the time there were just three women (5%) in the Parliament with just 42 women out of 1,160 elected municipal government representatives (3.6%).

The women’s ‘day off’ started a revolution that saw them taking their rightful places in politics, workplaces, business, across, society and, crucially, in local and national government.

Their slogan was ‘I Dare. I Can. I Will’ and their revolution delivered. For the last 16 years, Iceland has topped the world’s global gender equality index. The country now has a women president; a women prime minister (she’s 37!) with a coalition government of three parties headed by women; seven women in the 11-member cabinet; 29 women in the 63-member parliament while 51% women are in municipal government.

This level of equal representation of women in political decision-making matters. Apart from the natural justice of seeing one half of the population properly represented, women represent half the potential talent and skills of the population and their under-representation in decision-making is a loss for society as a whole.

A balanced participation of women and men in decision-making would produce different ideas, values and styles of behaviour suited to a fairer and more balanced world for all – according to the Athens Declaration of the Council of Europe. It’s something that most of us readily recognise from our experiences in families, communities, workplaces and across society.

Within the context of the current nexus of crises – housing, cost of living, childcare, fuel and heating – women’s perspectives are critical to shaping policies that reflect the realities of our society and economy. Their absence diminishes the strength of our local and national responses.

LEARNING LESSONS FROM ICELAND

Recent research from the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership offers additional reasons why more women matter. Women politicians prioritise issues that benefit the most vulnerable in society, such as housing, communities, healthcare, welfare and education, and are key to better public service delivery.

Women leaders make for more equal and caring societies; they tend to bring collaborative and inclusive leadership styles into political environments that are often characterised by division and one-upmanship. In the current global context, it is useful to note that those states where women hold more political power are less likely to go to war.

Iceland is not immune to those crises either. However, they develop their solutions differently. There is state-provided childcare, mandatory gender budgeting at the state level and increasingly at municipal level; Iceland works on a well-being economy with indicators including healthy life years, unmet need for healthcare, work-life balance, job satisfaction, housing cost overburden, quality of housing and persistent poverty, rather than just fiscal benchmarks.

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