I think in Northern Ireland we've come a long way in the last 20 years, in fact the mid-70s would really have been the turning point in the whole awareness of the rights of women, because obviously Civil Rights dominated the whole struggle in Northern Ireland from the 60s on. Then women's rights, and today women's rights, are seen as human rights. But legislatively I think we have put down a number of markers - let me give you the example of domestic violence: it was a problem with no name; then it was named; now it's legislated for in that you cannot be abusive to women in intimate relationships. Does that matter in terms of attitudes to women? Therein lies the difference in that you can do one thing through the courts with law, but really you have to then say 鈥榯his is unacceptable in terms of your language, in terms of your behaviour and in the terms of the way that you think about women as your friends'. So we have a job of work there still to do with our young people, particularly young men who still think that it's funny, that they can crack jokes about how they talk about women.
In terms of structures, again in Northern Ireland, particularly in the Agreement, we made sure that women would be written into decision-making roles, and yet we formed a Police Board that only have two women out of seventeen on it. So there is a lot of resistance still to thinking about the importance of women, alongside political identity and religion as the dominant factors when it comes to decision-making, still, in something as important as policing, in which women's lives are policed quite frequently, and in which they require police quite often. And then in policies, I think it's hugely important that women are involved in decision making: one, because there are things that happen to them that don't happen to men - the cancers that happen to women are a particular example, or the gynaecological things - but also that women bring issues to that table that maybe would not have been there. They also bring people to that table that may not have been there and I see that in my role as an Assembly member - there are so many professionally-led bodies quite rightly bringing their expertise in teaching and in medicine and social work.
But then you ask "Where are the women who are doing the work on the ground in community centres and advice centres and in family groups, who have a whole lot of knowledge from the street and from the work that they're doing dealing with it every day both in domestic and caring responsibilities, that may not have been brought to that table?" I also think that women in business life also have a different type of expertise that they can offer, and it's very important to ensure that they have a role in decision-making in Northern Ireland in the future.