‘You look like a porn star’ – the abuse women face in politics as parties seek to hit gender quota
Source: The Irish Times
A record number of women are expected to run in the next general election but insults and misogyny make the job of parties more difficult to encourage women to enter politics.
South Dublin county councillor Teresa Costello was sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon last month when she received a phone call from an unknown number. The 47-year-old had just returned from a clinic, where she listens to and attempts to assist locals from her electoral ward of Tallaght Central.
“I answered the phone and it was a man. He asked me: ‘Are you Teresa Costello?’ and said: ‘You look like a porn star, how could you be capable of doing anything for your community?’” the Fianna Fáil representative recalls. “He said: ‘With your dyed blonde hair, your fake face and teeth.’
“He was saying, how could anybody take you seriously with how you look, and told me to let my hair grow out and not have any blonde any more.”
Costello has been a councillor since 2019 and in recent months was announced as a general election candidate for Fianna Fáil in Dublin South West, alongside the party’s sitting TD John Lahart. While she loves her role as a local representative and describes herself as a “strong-willed person”, she asks rhetorically: “Would a man get that call?”
Read here the full article published by The Irish Times on 5 October 2024.
Image by The Irish Times
A record number of women are expected to run in the next general election but insults and misogyny make the job of parties more difficult to encourage women to enter politics.
South Dublin county councillor Teresa Costello was sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon last month when she received a phone call from an unknown number. The 47-year-old had just returned from a clinic, where she listens to and attempts to assist locals from her electoral ward of Tallaght Central.
“I answered the phone and it was a man. He asked me: ‘Are you Teresa Costello?’ and said: ‘You look like a porn star, how could you be capable of doing anything for your community?’” the Fianna Fáil representative recalls. “He said: ‘With your dyed blonde hair, your fake face and teeth.’
“He was saying, how could anybody take you seriously with how you look, and told me to let my hair grow out and not have any blonde any more.”
Costello has been a councillor since 2019 and in recent months was announced as a general election candidate for Fianna Fáil in Dublin South West, alongside the party’s sitting TD John Lahart. While she loves her role as a local representative and describes herself as a “strong-willed person”, she asks rhetorically: “Would a man get that call?”
Read here the full article published by The Irish Times on 5 October 2024.
Image by The Irish Times