“Women in politics – Be the She Change” webinar launched

Pictured launching the webinar at Nano Nagle Place were (l to r) Cllr. Mary Rose Desmond, Chair of Cork City Council's Women's Caucus; Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr. Colm Kelleher; Dr. Naomi Masheti, Programme Director, Cork Migrant Centre; Caroline O'Driscoll, Partner, Deloitte Ireland; Cllr. Colette Finn; Cllr. Deirdre Forde.

5th November 2021

Ireland’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN), the first woman to head up the Scouts in this country and the first Traveller woman to sit in the Oireachtas are just some of the trailblazers who will speak at a webinar aimed at encouraging more women into politics, organised by Cork City Council in conjunction with its Women’s Caucus and supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Titled “Women in politics – Be the She Change”, the keynote address will be given by Geraldine Byrne Nason, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who drew global acclaim for her passionate speech on women’s rights in Afghanistan at the time of the US exit from the country.

Joining her on November 17 will be Jill Pitcher Farrell, the first female Chief Scout, Senator Eileen Flynn, the first Traveller woman to serve in the Oireachtas and Cllr Uruemu Adejinmi, the first African woman to be elected as Cathaoirleach of an Irish local authority.

A panel discussion with the Caucus’s Chair, Cllr. Mary Rose Desmond, Cork City Council Chief Executive, Ann Doherty and former Lord Mayor of Cork, Catherine Clancy will be moderated by Dr. Theresa Reidy (Department of Government & Politics UCC).

Cllr. John Sheehan will also discuss the everyday impact of period poverty with a student from St. Angela’s College, Cork City who has taken part in the Young Social Innovators - YSI Ireland project. Meanwhile, his Cork City Council colleague, Cllr. Garrett Kelleher will take part in the second panel discussion moderated by Senator Flynn. Caroline O’Driscoll, partner at Deloitte Ireland and co-founder of iWish, the enormously successfully programme aimed at encouraging young girls into STEM careers, will conclude the webinar.

The webinar will be interpreted by two Irish Sign Language interpreters.

Chair, Cllr. Mary Rose Desmond said: “We are making a real effort to encourage as many people as possible, women and men, as we can to join this webinar as the challenge of increasing the number of women in local politics isn’t going away. Put simply, women make up half of the population yet there aren’t anywhere enough of us at the tables where decisions are being made about our lives. The upcoming webinar will be enormously interesting as women from diverse backgrounds and from political & non-political forums will take a hard and honest look at the systemic barriers and fears that stop many women from seeing themselves get involved in local politics”.

 The webinar will take place on Wednesday November 17 from 12:00pm to 1.30pm and will be hosted on www.corkcity.ie   

Register for the webinar on Eventbrite.

https://publications.corkcity.ie/view/674974988/

 For press queries, please contact communications@corkcity.ie