ABSTRACT
The partnership approach to policy-making has been expanded to include the Community and Voluntary sector, giving groups such as the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) a direct input into the policy process. A recent report on women and poverty in Ireland notes that gender continues to be a significant factor in poverty and social exclusion. This exclusion is particularly evident in women's under-representation within policy-making processes. The under-representation of women in political processes has been attributed, in part, to the historically low rates of female participation in the labour force and, in part, to the electoral system — single transferable vote system of proportional representation (PR-STV) — combined with relatively small constituencies. To date there have been two Commissions on the Status of Women, both established by Government as a result of extensive lobbying on the part of women's groups.
