Madam, - Peter Molloy (October 4th) suggests that the causes of alleged female political apathy might be found in the shopping centres of Ireland. He justifies this sexist remark by citing the Irish Times/Behaviour & Attitudes survey which found that women rate personal grooming higher than relationships and politics.
I would strongly suggest that if, in a comparable all-male survey, men rated sports higher than any other interest including relationships and politics, this finding would surprise no one; and furthermore, there would be no adverse reaction to it.
The very fact that the commissioned survey targeted women as a separate cultural group implies that women are still perceived as "the other" therefore less than equal. It is difficult to imagine a similar survey targeting only men being published.
Women are indeed blatantly under-represented in parliament in Ireland, but this is possibly the cause of the perceived apathy and not the result. To remedy this we could adopt a candidate quota within the political parties, as Nordic countries did in the 1970s and 1980s, or we could go further and introduce a parliamentary quota.
Perhaps a debate on this topic would be more worthwhile than asking women whether they prefer shopping to male-dominated politics. - Yours, etc,
SUSAN COYLE, Lucan, Co Dublin.
Madam, - I find it ironic that someone from a gender-segregated party is complaining about the lack of women in politics (Sinéad Ní Chulacháin, Labour Women, October 3rd).
The Progressive Democrats, without creating separate "mini-parties" for women, has achieved gender balance in the past three consecutive Dáil terms, and ran the highest percentage of female candidates in the last election.
They also had the first woman leader of a Dáil party. If Ms Ní Chulacháin feels that women have been left out of politics, maybe her first step should be to work to abolish a system that creates a separate cubby-hole for women, and to encourage women to compete with men on an equal basis, within the main party. The Progressive Democrats have shown this can work. - Yours, etc,
STEPHEN FITZPATRICK, Foxrock, Dublin 18.
Madam, - Congratulations on your recent poll on women's attitudes. I look forward to reading your survey on men (in the name of equality). - Yours, etc,
PAUL J. SAMMON, Suncroft, Co. Kildare