It’s a historic milestone in a state established a century ago that ensures the dominance of pro-UK unionists. 

“That such a day would ever come would have been unimaginable to my parents and grandparents’ generation,” said O’Neill, 47, in her speech, addressing the Chamber for the first time as First Minister. 

“This is an historic day which represents a new dawn,” she said. “I will serve everyone equally and be a first minister for all.”

“I am sorry for all the lives lost during the conflict without exception,” she added. 

O’Neill now shares a joint office with her counterpart, the newly appointed Deputy First Minister, the DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly, who also acknowledged that “for many today, it is a historic moment”. 

On Saturday, Northern Ireland’s devolved government was restored two years to the day since it collapsed. 

The DUP had boycotted the devolved government for two years over post-Brexit checks on goods going between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Power-sharing rules state that the devolved government can only operate with both unionists and nationalists involved in decision-making.

The Sinn Féin party’s leader, Mary Lou McDonald made the remark earlier this week that O’Neill’s appointment put the possibility of a united Ireland “within touching distance”.

O’Neill, however, steered clear of this subject in her opening speech, saying instead: “This place we call home, this place we love, North of Ireland or Northern Ireland, where you can be British, Irish, both or none, is a changing point.”

“To all of you who are British and unionist: your national identity, culture and traditions are important to me.

“I will be both inclusive and respectful to you,” she pledged.

“Our allegiances are equally legitimate. Let’s walk this two-way street and meet one another halfway. I will be doing so with both an open hand and with heart.”

With strong family ties to the region’s troubled past, O’Neill comes from a republican family in Clonoe, Co Tyrone. Her father was an IRA prisoner during the conflict involving republican paramilitaries fighting to reunite Ireland, loyalist paramilitaries battling to remain in the UK and British security forces.

As the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Sinn Féin was historically shunned by both sides of the political establishment. 

Representative of the “changing times”, it’s now the most popular party in the Irish republic. Despite Sinn Féin’s victory at the 2022 election, however, a series of opinion polls have since found the people of Northern Ireland would still vote decisively against a united Ireland if there was a referendum. 

The post Michelle O’Neill becomes Northern Ireland’s first nationalist First Minister appeared first on Women's Agenda.

While Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said that she is “very pro-life,” she has also said that abortion is a “personal choice.” Her wording on different thorny political issues such as abortion has left some voters confused about where she actually stands.

This has led some political observers, such as Politico journalist Michael Kruse, to say that Haley has “made a career of taking both sides,” citing her positions on issues such as identity politics, Donald Trump and abortion.

In the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses, an Iowa voter praised Haley for pursing a “political middle,” noting this allowed the former South Carolina governor to “compromise” and work “both sides.” Conversely, some conservative commentators have also suggested that Haley’s approach is “inauthentic.”

Haley placed third in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024, drawing support from 19% of voters there.

Polls on Jan. 16, 2024, showed Trump’s lead over Haley in the New Hampshire primary, set for Jan. 23, narrowing.

We are communication and English scholars who study the role of language and persuasion in politics. We are particularly interested in the ways that speakers and writers adapt their messages and language in different situations and among various voters. We call this concept rhetorical adaptivity.

Our research shows that women presidential candidates, more than the men they run against, often speak differently to different audiences in pursuit of moderation and common ground. They also tend to shift their strategies and messages in response to criticism. And they often pay a price for it.

Rhetoric and presidential campaigns

Politicians changing their words and messages to appeal to different audiences is the subject of a book we co-authored in 2023, “Hillary Clinton’s Career in Speeches: The Promises and Perils of Women’s Rhetorical Adaptivity.”

This project examined how Clinton, her presidential opponents in 2008 and 2016, and the Democratic women who ran for president in 2020 campaigned differently. We found that women more commonly adjusted their language and reshaped their positions to appeal to more voters and to manage the controversies they faced.

In 2016, for example, Hillary Clinton tried to find more of a middle ground on abortion by referring to the “fetus” as an “unborn person” and talking about restrictions on “late-term abortions” – even as she defended a “pro-choice” position.

Both Clinton and Haley opponents have questioned their authenticity, citing the politicians’ shifting language and positions. Such challenges aimed to undermine their candidacies by suggesting they lacked the character to be president.

Haley’s rhetorical maneuvers

Haley’s critics also cite her shifting positions, including on issues such as abortion, Palestinians in Gaza and Donald Trump to argue she lacks a political core.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, for example, was quick to condemn Haley’s “compromising stance” on abortion during the August 2023 Republican debate.

Haley’s opponents have also challenged her changing positions on the Israel-Hamas war. As the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Haley supported Israel and disparaged the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency for “using American money to feed Palestinian hatred of the Jewish state.”

Yet, in the early days of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Haley showed more sympathy for the Palestinians.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ridiculed Haley’s compassion as being “politically correct.” Haley reaffirmed her pro-Israel priorities in response during a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in mid-October 2023. Haley said she supported Israel and called for the elimination of Hamas. Concern for the Palestinians slipped down the ladder of her priorities.

As a U.N. ambassador, meanwhile, Haley was unwavering in her support for Trump. In her 2019 book, “With All Due Respect,” Haley concluded: “In every instance I dealt with Trump, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with.”

Since then, Haley has carved a middle ground approach to Trump. She has argued, “We need him in the Republican Party. I don’t want us to go back to the days before Trump.”

Yet, in other contexts, she disparages Trump for sowing “chaos, vendettas and drama.”

Trump called her out on this discrepancy in the fall of 2023. “She criticizes me one minute, and 15 minutes later, she un-criticizes me.”

Haley’s character woes

Other critics frame Haley’s positions as “flip-flopping.” They don’t interpret what she is doing as moderating her positions or using the language of compromise to build consensus.

Time magazine ran a headline in February 2023 that read: “A Brief History of Nikki Haley’s Biggest Flip Flops on Trump.” In March 2023, The New York Times featured an opinion piece titled, “The Serene Hypocrisy of Nikki Haley.”

Challenging the authenticity of presidential candidates is commonplace, but it is especially piercing when the challenge is directed against women candidates. In presidential politics, research shows that women are conditioned to be uniters, consensus-builders and mitigators of any negativity they face.

Yet, efforts to do this and still “be all things to all people” often result in women candidates falling into gaffe traps.

Haley’s initial refusal to associate “slavery” with the Civil War in December 2023 reinforced a southern trope that some Republicans of color called a “tactical blunder.”

Women’s election challenges

More leadership experts are recognizing the benefits of political candidates integrating multiple perspectives into their thinking and speech. The Pew Research Center found in 2018 that in politics as well as business, women are perceived to be more “compassionate” and “empathic” and are more likely to work out “compromises” than men.

Yet, in presidential campaigns, and especially primaries, compromise, adaptivity and problem-solving are exchanged for hubris, rigidity and ideological purity. Playing to the political middle is treated as politically evasive and opportunistic.

Eventually, women playing to the middle become more gaffe-prone as the campaign unfolds. Women, more than the men they run against, are granted minimal room by opponents and pundits for unforced errors before they are quickly dismissed as “unelectable.”

Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Professor of Communication, University of Maryland and David Kaufer, Professor Emeritus of English, Carnegie Mellon University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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In a vote of Liberal Party members on Sunday, Sharma defeated Andrew Constance, another former Liberal MP, with 251 votes to 206 votes in the preselection battle for the spot.

Sharma, who also served as Australia’s Ambassador to Israel between 2013 and 2017, lost his seat in federal parliament at the 2022 election, when independent Allegra Spender won Wentworth with 54 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

Sharma replaces Marise Payne, who retired from politics on September 30, after serving as one of the most senior women in the previous Morrison government, including as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women. She was the longest serving woman in the history of the Senate.

There were 10 candidates in the preselection race for Payne’s seat, with two men considered frontrunners – moderate Andrew Constance and former ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja, from the party’s right. Dominic Perrottet’s former staffer Monica Tudehope, who had the backing of the Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black and Perrottet, was also in the race. As was the Lowy Institute’s Jess Collins.

Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton endorsed both Seselja, from his own right faction, as well as Constance.

A lost opportunity to boost number of women

The contest for Payne’s Senate seat was an opportunity for the Liberal Party to show they are interested in rebuilding the place of women in the party, following their resounding election defeat in 2022.

There are now just 10 women from the Liberal Party in the Senate, following the departure of Payne. With Sharma’s win, there will now be 13 Liberal Party men in the Senate. Across the entire federal parliament, the party’s representation of women is much lower, reaching just over 35 per cent.

There are just 7 women from the Liberal Party in the House of Representatives. 

There was also an opportunity to build on the recent addition of Maria Kovacic, who filled a Senate spot in May this year that was previously held by the late Jim Molan. Kovacic, a self-described “progressive Liberal” with a small business background, has brought some much needed youth and diversity to the party’s ranks.

But it was three men – Sharma, Constance, and Seselja – who secured the most support from Liberal Party members. The women in the race – although equipped with impressive CVs and endorsements – were never in with a real chance.

It comes as Hilma’s Network, an organisation founded by former journalist Charlotte Mortlock, has worked intensively this year to connect like-minded women in a bid to boost the base of Liberal Party members with more women, especially younger women. 

Hilma’s Network launched a gender representation tracker that lists women making up just 29 per cent of Coalition representatives in federal parliament. Mortlock told Women’s Agenda in April that she was determined to “flood the base of this Party with younger people and more women” and the organisation is quickly gathering momentum.

However last year, a review into the Liberal Party’s election loss ruled out formal quotas for the number of women in federal parliament. The party has a long history of opposing quotas for women in winnable seats, a strategy that was embraced by the Labor Party in the 1990s. 

Without quotas, the Liberal Party needs to make a concerted attempt to ensure women are given every opportunity to be in with a chance to secure seats in parliament. Dutton, who backed Constance and Seselja, made no effort to do so when the opportunity arose this time around.

The Liberal Party needs to attract women voters, who largely deserted the party in 2022, if it ever hopes to form government. Supporting women when preselection races come around is key to that.

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A new report from Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London analysed over 500 pieces of research into the impacts of women leaders. It shows that women in politics play a key role in creating a political system that delivers on issues that create a more equal and caring society.

Women in politics bring more consideration to creating better outcomes for women and girls, but also to issues that directly improve the lives of men and boys.

On average, women politicians work harder than men to accurately represent their constituents, which is linked to a stronger sense among voters that the government is responsive to their needs.

Increased representation of women helps to counteract corruption in politics, while states that have higher numbers of women in office are less likely to go to war and less likely to commit human rights abuses.

Women in politics tend to prioritise social issues like healthcare, education and welfare. The report indicates this focus may be because women, on average, tend to have greater experiences of deprivation than men and are more likely to have taken on caring responsibilities in their life.

The authors of this report say it was comissioned in early 2020, before the world descended into the depths of the COVID-19 crisis. They now say the report’s contents could not be more timely, as the world grapples with how to recover from the pandemic.

Politics is so often tarnished by division and one-upmanship, but during this time, women leaders have brought a collaborative and inclusive leadership style to parliaments around the world. And this is exactly what the report says women leaders do.

“Understanding the gendered nature of political leadership and decision-making is more important than ever as we collectively rebuild and hopefully move towards are more sustainable, resilient and inclusive future,” said Shannon O’Connell, Director of Programmes at Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Professor Rosie Campbell, Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, said: “This is a unique and important piece of work that makes an unequivocal case for the multitude of ways that politics, governance, economies and societies thrive when women take their place as leaders.”

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