equal rights
Ireland: Referendums on family and the role of women failed
The wording of the Irish constitution will not be changed for the time being. Two referendums sought to modernize the role of women and the family in the constitution. photo
© Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire/dpa
The government wanted to modernize the constitution. The concept of family should be expanded and the wording about women in the household should be changed. The head of government sees the project as a failure.
Ireland’s government has conceded defeat in two referendums that amended language in the constitution on the role of the Woman should be modernized in the household and family. It is clear at this point that the referendums have been comprehensively rejected, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told RTÉ while the votes were still being counted.
“The government accepts the result and will fully respect it,” Varadkar said. “It was our responsibility to convince a majority of people to vote yes and we clearly failed at that.”
In the Republic of Ireland – on International Women’s Day on Friday of all days – people were able to decide in a double vote on two constitutional amendments whether the definition of family should be expanded and a wording on the role of women at home should be changed.
The goal was more neutral formulations
Specifically, the first referendum decided on an expanded definition of family. Article 41.1, which recognizes the family “as the natural, primary and fundamental unit of society”, should have been supplemented with the addition of “Family – whether based on marriage or any other permanent relationship”.
The second referendum was about the role of women in the household. Articles 41.2.1 and 41.2.2 should be deleted. They said that the state recognized that “the woman, through her life at home, is a support to the state, without which the common good cannot be realized.” The state should ensure that mothers are not forced out of economic necessity to work “while neglecting their domestic duties”.
This passage should have been replaced with gender-neutral wording, and the importance of care work should have been anchored: “The state recognizes that the mutual care of family members, due to the bonds that exist between them, is a support to society, without which the common good cannot be achieved can be achieved and strives to support this care.”