AS I SEE IT
MARIANNE HERON
It’s a busy time of year – officially a holiday but if you are the one in charge of making Christmas happen- it’s a full-on labour of love. All that present buying, wrapping, shopping and cooking is where it’s generally women who shoulder the lioness’ share of the tasks. Let’s face it Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without women.
We women are to be given a belated present on March 8, International Women’s Day with the long- promised amendment to Article 41 of the Constitution. That’s the one which in addition to dealing with the family based on marriage states that the state shall “endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”.
In some ways it will be welcome to see the back of that clause, not just because it’s sexist – it is) – positively Victorian (neglect of duties, indeed) or because it limits mothers to a domestic role (it doesn’t stop mothers working outside the home) but because, while it is good to have women’s special contribution to society recognised, it was an utterly empty promise.
What happened to women and wives and mothers in particular didn’t matter a damn or begin to merit State protection until the start of the 1970s. There were deserted wives, battered wives, unmarried mothers who got neither financial nor practical support. There were Mother & Baby Homes, no contraception nor equal pay. Any entitlements for women were not willingly given but that had to be fought for in court or by campaign groups.
But here’s the reality. Nothing will change with the removal of the offending clause from the Constitution. Mothers will continue to be obliged by economic necessity to work outside the home (if they even have one as there are currently more than 14,000 homeless). They will battle to meet childcare costs, juggle work and home responsibilities often with long commutes caused by the high cost of housing in Dublin and other cities. And they will continue to bear the brunt of those “duties within the home”. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality around 30% of Irish women spent four hours a day or more on housework compared to less than 15% of men in 2020.
The Citizens Assembly deliberated long and hard on its recommendations on the wording of the proposed referendum and the definition of family and care within the family. And, while few would argue with the need to widen the definition of families beyond those based solely on marriage – where 40% of births now take place outside marriage – the recognition of, and support for, carers looks like being another toothless promise.
Whereas the assembly voted by a heft majority (81%) for wording which “would oblige the State to take reasonable to support for care within the home and wider community”, the Government have opted for weaker, unenforceable wording where the word home is omitted. “The State recognises the that the provision of care by a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to society a the common good … and shall strive to support such provision.”
Caring, whether it be voluntary or waged, has traditionally fallen to women and because it is done by women is undervalued and low waged. Family Carers Ireland reckon that there are 500,000 carers providing an average 19 hours a week of unpaid care saving the State €20bn a year. I just wonder that if it was men’s work there would have been wages for stay- at-home parents, free child care and better pay for carers long ago.
It’s up to us to join a debate about what we want in the new wording for the referendum. The word mother is gone in the cause of gender neutrality. Do we need to be careful that women may become neutralised in the sex war?
Meantime, let’s raise a cheer for women and mothers wherever they may be. Maybe they are at home preparing for Christmas, or homeless or far from home as immigrants fleeing war. Maybe they are trying to keep hope alive in the face of bombing, starvation and disease as the Israeli army forces continue to obliterate the population of Gaza. Just maybe they might be women who can convince Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu that wiping out civilians, homes or hospitals is a crime against humanity.
The wars must stop.
