The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has said it would have liked the wording of the role of carers in the upcoming referendum to “go further” but is “a step in the right direction”.
Orla O’Connor, director of NWCI, said the referendums on family and care need to be reflected in policy and legislation and met with significant investment by the Government and future Governments.
The National Women’s Council launched its referendum campaign at the Mansion House in Dublin on Thursday, and is calling for a Yes vote in both referendums.
A small number of women protested outside the launch on Dawson Street, who said they were calling for Article 41.2 to remain in the Constitution, which sets out the State’s recognition of a woman’s life within the home.
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Estelle Birdy, of The Silenced Protest, said the National Women’s Council did not represent the “vast majority of women in this country”.
The referendums, which will be held on International Women’s Day on March 8th, would broaden the definition of family beyond marriage and recognise “other durable relationships” in the Constitution.
There would also be a new reference to carers to recognise all those who provide care and to remove the reference to women’s duties in the home from the Constitution.
Ms O’Connor said she hoped the upcoming referendums would lead to a “national conversation” on care and supports for the people who need it.
She said “sexist” and “stereotypical” language had no place in the Constitution and was representative of “a time when women were treated as second-class citizens”.
Ms O’Connor said the Constitution must reflect “all of its people” and all children and families deserved equal recognition and protection.
“These referendums are a first step towards real, material change but it’s vitally important that we take that step to have that impact,” she added.
Catherine Day, chair of the Citizens’ Assembly on gender equality from 2019 to 2021, acknowledged the proposed wording didn’t go as far as the Assembly recommended, who wanted care in the wider community, along with in the home, supported.
“I think it would be a mistake to say no now, because you didn’t get everything you asked for,” she said.
“I and the citizens would have liked to see full recommendations taken up but this is a big step in their direction and I think the best thing to do is take it and continue advocating.”
When asked about concerns raised by Senator Michael McDowell who questioned the definition of a durable relationship, Ms Day said the Constitution was about “setting out the principles of the kind of society we want to live in”.
“You don’t try to define everything in the Constitution, that you leave to the judges in the end of the day, and they will interpret it,” she said.
“I think they showed last week in deciding that a widower was entitled to a widow’s pension, that they understand the modern world and they are able to make decisions that reflect it.
“Symbolism matters, otherwise why do we bother having a lot of things in the Constitution, and this is about coming out of 1937 Ireland, which was such a different place, to where Ireland is now and where Ireland wants to go.”
Gayle Smith, the information and policy officer at Treoir, the national federation of services for unmarried parents and their children, said they were “disappointed” with the wording when it was announced and felt it “didn’t go far enough”.
“However, we do realise that this referendum does go in the right direction,” she said. “It goes in the right direction we need to go if we want a more equal society.”
Ms Smith said the fact the Constitution currently only recognises a family based on marriage was exclusionary with 40 per cent of families in Ireland non-marital families.
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