evidence: In fact, there was confusion about whether women could stand as candidates at all and the Sinn Féin convention passed a resolution stating that no candidate should stand "other than a man who took part of the fight of Easter Week". As a result, women’s preparation for candidacy was rushed with suffragists working tirelessly to support the two women candidates, putting up posters, giving speeches and organising numerous meetings and rallies. Already, women were being left behind by the male leadership in Sinn Fein. [...] Sadly, as we know, that progress towards gender equality was short-lived for Irish women, following independence the new state’s deep conservatism, patriarchal control and influence of the Catholic Church pushed women back into their homes. It would be another 60 years before Ireland had its second woman minister, Maire Geoghan Quinn. Today, women make up 22% of the Dail, 30% of the Seanad and only four of 15 ministers. [...] 11 – Margaret Ward, 2017, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/hanna-sheehy-skeffington-fighting- ireland-s-masculine-monopoly-1.3242516 12 – The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act: Gender quotas allow parties’ state funding to be cut by 50% unless 30% of candidates are women. The threshold will increase to 40 per cent from 2023 onwards. Up to and including the 2011 general election, the proportion of women in Dáil Éireann never exceeded 16 per cent. This was despite significant socio-cultural change over the past thirty years and the presence of a proportional electoral system, factors usually associated with facilitating women’s representation.