A review of how women are treated in Irish society is long overdue while gender equality measures in Ireland should be re-examined with “urgency”, President Michael D Higgins has said.
Speaking at Thursday’s HeForShe garden party in Áras an Uachtaráin, the president called on the Irish people to “recognise and reject the many, often small, barely visible ways in which we collectively create a society that at best ignores, and at worst, facilitates and allows the casual discrimination that women are forced to tolerate in their daily lives”.
The time for ending violence against women is “long past” and yet this problem continues, said Mr Higgins.
A culture that accepts and fails to speak out against the “daily forms of mistreatment and belittlement of women” silently enables this culture being taken for granted, he said. This can lead to “often serious consequences such as emotion and physical cruelty, exploitation and even death”.
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The president was speaking with representatives from sport, arts, law, agriculture, education and youth empowerment who gathered at the president’s residence in Phoenix Park on Thursday to discuss themes of gender equality, dignity and respect.
Gender equality remains a “serious barrier to woman progression” in far too many Irish institutions, said the president. “There are still too many sports clubs where women are made to feel like second-class citizens. That women feel increasingly unsafe when walking alone should be a concern for us all, men and women.”
A society that views women as lesser citizens is not only dysfunctional, but fails to recognise “the essential dignity of the person”, he said.
The president said during their years of public life, he and his wife Sabina had “always stressed that when a woman’s contribution is ignored, devalued or obstructed, all of society is the loser”. The role men must play in achieving these equal rights has become “abundantly clear” — recognition of equality is a duty that “must be shared by all”.
Acknowledging these issues is not enough, men must raise their voices and unite in demanding the removal of the many barriers that prevent women from feeling “respected and safe” in schools, universities, national institutions, on sports fields, on our streets and, worst of all, in their own homes, he said.
The president acknowledged Ireland’s progress in recent years in becoming a more inclusive society that “recognises the voices of many of those who once felt forced to remain silent”. However, violence against women still prevails and must be re-examined “in a spirt of some urgency”.
Without naming any specific individuals, the president paid tribute to the young women “with so much potential and possibility for their lives” who had died at the hands of violent men in recent times. These women were “grievously let down by a society that continues, in some sections, to tolerate behaviour that allows women become the victims of inequity, belittlement, abuse and aggression”.
The president described figures from Women’s Aid’s latest report — which documented 33,821 disclosures of domestic abuse during 2021 — as “stark and shocking” and expressed further concern about the 5,735 disclosures relating to child abuse in the context of domestic violence.
“It is so important that these children, too, receive vital support and protection in order that they might live lives free from fear and endangerment.”
It is also crucial that children learn, both at home and in school, about the importance of respecting equally the voices and rejecting of any notion of discrimination based on race, religion, sexuality, social background or gender, said Mr Higgins.
