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The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) was a minor cross-community political party in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
from 1996 to 2006. The NIWC was founded by Catholic academic
Monica McWilliams Monica Mary McWilliams (born 28 April 1954) is a Northern Irish academic, peace activist, human rights defender and former politician in Northern Ireland. In 1996, she co-founded the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) political party ...
and Protestant social worker
Pearl Sagar Pearl Sagar OBE (born 1958, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a former politician in Northern Ireland. Brought up a Protestant, Sagar became a social worker in East Belfast,Tiffany Danitz, "Raising voices for peace in Ireland - Northern Ireland Wome ...
to contest elections to the
Northern Ireland Forum The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westmin ...
, the body for all-party talks which led to the
Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
. The party campaigned principally around the fact that it was led by women, declining to take a position on whether Northern Ireland should be part of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
or a
United Ireland United Ireland, also referred to as Irish reunification, is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically; the sovereign Republic of Ireland has jurisdiction over the maj ...
. It did not identify as
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
.


History


Creation and growth

The creation of the NIWC is usually traced back to a meeting over dinner between Avila Kilmurray, a former trade union official and former director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, and McWilliams in April 1996. The pair discussed ways in which women could be "written into, rather than out of" the Northern Ireland peace process. Working with the Northern Ireland Women's European Forum, they unsuccessfully lobbied the
Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; ga, Oifig Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for N ...
to require parties to submit gender-balanced lists for the
Northern Ireland Forum The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westmin ...
elections. Having failed, the NIWC was hastily assembled to contest the election. Around 150 women attended the first NIWC meeting, and subsequent meetings regularly attracted up to 60 people. Meetings were held in Belfast on a fortnightly and later weekly basis to debate positions, facilitated by rotating chairs. After a year, the NIWC developed a constitution that provided for the election of a 12–15 member executive committee to make policy decisions: two representatives from each county, plus the party's elected representatives as ''ex officio'' members. Additional members could be co-opted to maintain the cross-community balance. Monthly meetings continued to be open to the full membership. In the 1996 Forum elections, McWilliams, Sagar and eight other Coalition candidates secured 7,731 votes (1.03%). They did not win any constituency seats, but under a 'top-up' mechanism to ensure the representation of minor parties, they were awarded two seats, taken by McWilliams and Sagar. They attended the negotiations dominated by the other 108 representatives and supported (but did not, as often reported, sign) the ensuing intergovernmental Good Friday Agreement. The NIWC successfully introduced amendments on mixed housing, the inclusion of women in public life, special initiatives for young people affected by the conflict, recognition of the links between reconciliation and mixed housing and integrated education, and the promotion of a culture of tolerance. The NIWC also advocated the creation of a
Civic Forum for Northern Ireland The Civic Forum for Northern Ireland was a consultative body in Northern Ireland created in 2000 under the Good Friday Agreement and consisting of members of various civil bodies. It had no legislative or governmental powers. It last met in 2002 ...
, which was included in the Agreement and set up in 2000.


Post-Agreement political involvement

The NIWC fielded three candidates in the
1997 United Kingdom general election The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179 seat majority. Th ...
, collecting a total of 3,024 votes. In the 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election, the NIWC secured 13,018 votes (1.6%) and McWilliams, representing South Belfast, and
Jane Morrice Jane Morrice (born 11 May 1954) is a Northern Irish politician and journalist who helped architect the Good Friday Agreement. She is the former Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, former Head of the European Commission Office in Nort ...
, representing North Down, were elected to the inaugural
Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral , hou ...
. Some academics have speculated that the NIWC's existence forced other party leaders to pay more attention to women's interests in their campaigning during the election. The main parties put forward higher numbers of women in response to the advent of the NIWC, motivated by fear that votes for female candidates would go to the NIWC. In the
2001 Northern Ireland local elections 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
, the party secured 3,301 votes (0.4%) and one council seat. McWilliams stood unsuccessfully as a candidate in the 2001 United Kingdom general election, securing 2,968 votes in South Belfast (7.8%).


Decline and dissolution

At its 2002 conference, the NIWC boasted of being "the only women's party in the world that has elected representatives – that is quite some achievement". By 2003, however, both NIWC MLAs had lost their seats in the 2003 Assembly elections, where the party's vote fell to 5,785 votes (0.8%). The party subsequently held "a frank, honest and constructive discussion" about whether to continue, eventually resolving that it would not wind up. Its electoral fortunes did not recover. The party's last remaining elected representative lost her seat on
North Down Borough Council North Down Borough Council was a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. It merged with Ards Borough Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become North Down and Ards District Council. Its m ...
in
2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
, where the NIWC secured 0.1% of the Northern Ireland vote. The party never contested another election. On 11 May 2006, the Women's Coalition was formally wound up at a function held in
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
.


References


External links


NIWC 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly Election Manifesto – A New Voice for New Times
{{Defunct political parties in Northern Ireland Feminism in Ireland Feminist organisations in the United Kingdom Feminist parties in the United Kingdom Defunct political parties in Northern Ireland Political parties established in 1996 Political parties disestablished in 2006 1996 establishments in Northern Ireland 2006 disestablishments in Northern Ireland Women's organisations based in Northern Ireland