Referendum on women in the home to be held next March

The Government plans to hold a referendum to delete the references in the Constitution to women’s role in the home, with the date of March 8th – International Women’s Day – likely to be the polling day.

It is also expected that the proposal will include inserting into the Constitution a recognition of family carers and also an aspiration that the State should “strive to support the provision of care” in the home.

The proposal was discussed at a Cabinet Committee meeting on Monday and is likely to be brought to next week’s Government meeting for approval.

It will require an act to be passed by the Oireachtas, proposing to amend the Constitution with the agreed wording, before a public information campaign about the changes is undertaken by the new Electoral Commission, the State body that regulates and oversees elections and referendums.

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It is likely that the legislation will be introduced to the Oireachtas before Christmas, though time for debate is likely to be constrained by the relatively tight timetable.

The Government committed to holding a referendum this year, but officials and politicians failed to agree a final wording despite several months of wrangling. There was considerable anxiety among many senior politicians that a referendum campaign could turn into a debate on family, gender and gender roles, which politicians feared could be divisive, having proved controversial elsewhere.

Senior politicians have previously told The Irish Times about their fears that a referendum campaign could mean Ministers being confronted with questions about gender and family definition, to which they do not have ready answers.

After extensive deliberations, a Citizens’ Assembly reported in June 2021 that the Constitution should be amended to refer explicitly to gender equality and non-discrimination. It also said article 41 of the Constitution, which refers to the family, should be amended “so that it would protect private and family life, with the protection afforded to the family not limited to the marital family”.

It said that article 41.2, which refers to women’s “duties in the home”, should be deleted and replaced with language “that is not gender specific and obliges the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and wider community”.

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The article referring to women in the home has long been viewed by many as anachronistic, but agreement on how to amend it has been elusive.

The article says that the State “recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.

“The State shall, therefore, 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,” it says.

It is understood that no change is likely to be proposed to the articles which deal with the rights of the family, which is defined as being based on marriage in the Constitution.

However, the new wording will include recognition by the State that the “provision of care by family members to each other by reason of the bonds that exist among them” gives a support to society “without which the common good cannot be achieved”.

The State, it is expected to say, “shall strive to support such provision”.