Constitutional reference to role of women in the home ‘belongs to another era’

The chairperson of the Citizens Assembly, Catherine Day has said that “most people” agree that the reference to the role of the woman in the home in the Constitution belonged to another era.

“The Constitution was drafted in 1937. But what’s very important coming out of the Citizens Assembly is they don’t just want that clause deleted. They want it replaced by an obligation on the State to take reasonable measures to provide care for people,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

The Constitutional reference to women in the home was just one of a number of recommendations from the Citizens Assembly. Other recommendations cover “a huge range of areas” from improved child care to getting rid of gender stereotypes, to boosting female leadership in increasing the numbers and their role in sports bodies, in private and public company boards.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday that wording for up to three referendums on gender equality will be published in the early summer. The proposals will be to amend the Constitution on gender equality, the definition of “family” and the “place of women in the home”. It has not yet been decided whether there would be one omnibus referendum covering all, or up to three.

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Ms Day added that the Constitution “sets out our aspirations as a society and how we agree to be governed. And that’s why putting in something in the Constitution that explicitly refers to gender equality and nondiscrimination would signal that’s the kind of Ireland that we want to live in.”

When asked what wording would replace the section in the Constitution that references the role of women in the home, Ms Day said that the Assembly had deliberately decided not to recommend precise wording as they were not legally qualified to do so.

“What they want is something that obliges the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and the wider community.”

People wanted there to be an obligation on the State to define how care will be given to those who need it, she said.

“One would hope that there would be no need for individual citizens to go to the court in future to invoke that right to vindicate what they should have. They would have those rights.

“It will probably require legislation, but also policy. And the hope, I think, would be that once this obligation on the State would be in the Constitution, that Government departments would then follow through in terms of providing real care.”