CPA Links Women Legislators in N. Ireland, U.S.

Women legislators in Northern Ireland, who played an integral role in the nascent peace process there, will soon work with their counterparts in the U.S. to develop leadership skills and work across traditional boundaries through a CPA leadership development program. The program, supported by the Wasserman Foundation and the U.S. firm Shrum, Devine, Donilon, grew out of CPA’s participation in Vital Voices: Women in Democracy in Belfast this August, which brought together 400 women leaders from the U.S. and the British Isles, including CPA President and CEO Linda Tarr-Whelan, CPA Board Member Marylouise Oates, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Secretary for Northern Ireland Marjorie Mowlam.

The women of Northern Ireland have been crucial to the growth of peace between warring factions in Northern Ireland. Three-fourths of women in the north and south of Ireland voted for last spring’s peace proposal; 10 percent of those elected to the new Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland assembly are women. By comparison, voters in Northern Ireland have never chosen a woman representative to the British Parliament.

The leadership program, scheduled for January 1999, will train leaders in campaigning, issues management, polls and working with the media.