A Yes vote in the referendums won’t change women’s lives. A No vote would be truly retrograde

There are two referendums on the horizon – on March 8th – that have been necessary and urgent for decades. They are about the State recognising and supporting families, and about women’s and men’s role in society. The National Women’s Council and our 190 member organisations are calling on you to vote Yes and Yes.

It has been a long road to get here. It began with women protesting against one of the Articles on the ballot – 41.2 – when the Constitution was written in 1937. It continues right up to the present day, with the Constitutional Convention in 2013, the Citizens’ Assembly in 2021, and the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality in 2023 all recommending these referendums.

The question on family will ask you to amend the Constitution so that the State will recognise the importance of all families, including those based on “durable relationships”. The referendum on a woman’s place will ask you to amend outdated and sexist text in Article 41.2, which limits women to a life and duties in the home.

We all know that family is more than marriage. A wide diversity of families such as lone-parent families, families where other relatives have stepped in to look after children, and cohabiting couples, needs a Yes vote.

Family and care referendums: what exactly does the Government want to change, and why?

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Who’s who? The Yes and No camps in the March 8th family and care referendums

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For decades, these families have been left in legal limbo. Stigma has marred the lives of single mothers, even leading to incarceration in mother and baby homes. Throughout economic booms and busts lone parents remain at most risk of poverty. Families have been left destitute following a partner’s death with no access to a widow’s pension. A Yes vote will mean long overdue acknowledgement of these families across the country.

Today 40 per cent of births take place outside of marriage.

Our Constitution, as the foundational document of our society, should embrace all children equally. The children of lone parents, of cohabiting couples, and children looked after by other relatives, all deserve the same legal recognition as children born to married couples. That can only be achieved by voting Yes.

Moving to the referendum on a woman’s place in society: a No vote here would be a truly retrograde step. It would say that we accept a Constitution that says a woman’s place is in the home. Article 41.2 may not hurt women directly, but it frames our lives, our society and our value. It gives the State the oppressive role of keeping women from careers or employment of our own, ensuring “that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”.

But Article 41.2 never benefited women or society. It copper-fastened draconian policies such as the marriage bar, which exiled a whole generation of women from the professional, cultural and political fields. Many women still feel its impact in their pensions. A Yes vote will acknowledge the damage done to those women’s lives. And a Yes vote will pledge State support for everyone – including men – who provide care within the family. It would be a decisive signal to our nation’s daughters that a woman’s place is wherever she wants it to be.

It is a signal to our sons too – that they can and should play an equal role in caring and looking after the family and home. That it’s okay if they want to stay at home and care for their children or that it’s as acceptable for them to ask for flexibility from their employer to help care for an ageing parent.

Women currently do more caring work than men. Ninety per cent of the people who recorded their principal economic status as “looking after the home or family” in Census 2022 were women. A Yes vote will recognise the contribution that our unpaid labour makes to the economy and society. Some say this vote won’t change any of this, that it’s purely symbolic. But it would start the ball rolling.

[ Why are there so few men in caring roles? ]

A vote in favour will send a strong message to Government that we want change. Politicians will know the public demands that the State properly recognises and supports care and carers. Even with a Yes vote, we will still need huge investment – real money – to support everyone who gives and receives care or supports. But first we need to win this vote.

Government could and should have given us stronger wording; wording that recognises and supports care in all its forms – care within families and care in the wider community. It had the opportunity to show greater ambition by using language much stronger than “strive to support”, as recommended by countless experts.

[ Referendum will just replace a sexist dead letter with a gender-neutral dead letter ]

Nevertheless, we have to win these votes, because a No vote would banish these crucial issues to the end of the political queue for at least a generation. We need to win so that we can keep driving the momentum for positive change.

We at the National Women’s Council are calling on Government to establish three supports for care immediately following a Yes vote. For parents, we need public childcare and better paid family leave (such as maternity, paternity and parents’ leave), particularly for parents who also care for elderly relatives. For unpaid carers, we need a universal State pension that recognises and rewards their care work as a crucial contribution to society. And for disabled people, we need guaranteed access to personal assistance and supports for them to lead autonomous lives.

All political parties must answer the public’s concerns by pledging to continue and increase supports already in place, such as child benefit and carer’s allowance.

These referendums will allow us to finally turn the corner on Ireland’s dark past and have our Constitution reflect the optimistic, honest and inclusive society of today. They may not transform Irish life by themselves, but they will make life that bit better. They’ll make Ireland that bit more inclusive, that bit kinder, that bit fairer for more of us. And isn’t that worth a trip to the polling booth to vote Yes and Yes?

Orla O’Connor is director of the National Women’s Council