As Peace Comes Into View – Women Strike Out For Greater Representation in Northern Ireland

Lys Anzia – WNN Features

– Northern Ireland’s Betty Williams, 1976 Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize –

Did you know that women make up the majority of the population in Northern Ireland?

That’s right. Fifty-one percent to be exact. But even with this edge on the male population in Northern Ireland, women are underrepresented. Only 18 out of 108 seats of Northern Ireland parliamentarians are women . That gives only 18% of the population of women in the region representation inside Northern Ireland’s governing programs.

“We need to encourage more women to become involved in political life and we need to ensure that candidates are in winnable seats,” said Sinn Fein of the MLA – the Belfast Northern Ireland Assembly.

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for their work toward an ease to violence in Northern Ireland. At the Nobel award ceremony Williams said, “Unlocking the desire for peace would never have been enough. All the energy, all the determination to express an overwhelming demand for an end to the sickening cycle of useless violence would have reverberated briefly and despairingly among the people as had happened so many times before if we had not organized ourselves to use that energy and that determination positively once and for all.”

September 2006 PeaceJam conference with Betty Williams 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient-

 

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