Is the tánaiste being excessively criticised because of her gender? To address this question, one must consider the gendered nature of political institutions. Gendered institutions are those where gender is present in the processes, practices, images, ideologies and distribution of power.

Gendered institutions have traditionally placed women in a subservient position. Why? Political institutions are male-created bodies. The rules, processes and structures of the political game were developed by men at a time when women were still fighting for equal voting and political rights.

Men became the primary reference group and the notion of men as 'natural' leaders emerged.

Status characteristics theory suggests that men benefit compared to women on the basis of their gender, as politics has traditionally been seen as a male domain. Women politicians are often held to higher performance standards and, as a result, their performances are assessed less favourably.

Some women politicians question whether it is necessary to emulate 'masculine' behaviour. Shouting, sneering and name-calling have become standard procedure in parliaments in Anglo American countries. However, feminist studies suggest that women who adopt this combative style are often ridiculed and criticised for being 'unladylike'. Conversely, women who adopt a more collaborative, 'soft' and demure style are labelled weak. It's a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Women politicians privately opine that they must work harder than their male colleagues to succeed. These comments seem to be borne out by an examination of the political experience of the members of the present cabinet.

If you look at the average number of elected public service years (at local and national government) before a first cabinet appointment, you can see that the members of the current cabinet had to serve an average of 15.4 years, and male ministers served an average 3.25 years less than their female counterparts.

The average length of Dáil service by ministers up to May 2008 was 17.67 years, with the male ministers serving on average 2.5 years less than their female counterparts (17.18 years versus 19.67 years). The figures show that female ministers have had to serve longer in politics before being considered for ministerial office.

However, what is of greater concern is the fall in the number of women contesting general elections. In 2007 only 82 women (out of a total of 470 candidates) ran for the Dáil. This is the lowest number of women candidates in a general election since 1989.

What discourages women from standing in elections? The three Cs – childcare, cash and confidence – are often highlighted by women. Also, many of them feel unable to break into the 'clubby', male-dominated, old boys' network of political life.

Finally, party selection procedures have long worked against the selection of women candidates. Political parties will tend to favour the 'tried and tested' incumbent at selection conventions. Thus, it is difficult for women with little political experience to get selected.

The political parties have recognised this problem and are now moving towards measures to encourage more women to get involved. These measures range from target party quotas (though Fine Gael recently rejected this measure), to mentoring and training programmes.

There has been much comment about the need for legislative quotas to boost the number of women elected to the Dáil. Quotas are one of the most effective methods of encouraging numbers of women to enter politics. Candidate quota legislation has been introduced in several European countries and has made a significant difference.

In Spain, women's representation in parliament has gone from 28% in 2000, before the passing of the quota law, to 36% in 2008; in Belgium, the proportion of female MPs has increased from 12% in 1995 to 37% today.

Maybe by the time we cele­brate International Women's Day in 2011, we'll see more concrete measures in place to advance the role of women in Irish politics.

Fiona Buckley is a lecturer at the School of Governance in UCC, where women's participation in politics is among her main research interests