Referendums on women in the home and the concept of the family to be held next March

Key civil society groups are to consider their approach to the Government’s referendum campaigns after a lukewarm reception for the wording to be put to the electorate.

Votes on plans to remove the constitutional reference to the role of women in the home; and expand the concept of the family within the constitution, will take place next year.

The votes will be held on March 8th, 2024, International Women’s Day.

However, the coalition will not put a proposal to the people that the constitution would be amended to refer explicitly to gender equality and non-discrimination - something that was recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality and the special Oireachtas Committee which assessed its recommendations.

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A coalition of six civil society organisations including the National Women’s Council, Family Carers Ireland, One Family, Treoir, Independent Living Movement Ireland, and Siptu welcome the news that the referendums are to be held but noted that the wording did not go as far as had been recommended.

“Our organisations will now take some time to engage with our members, review the wording, and consider its impact on the communities we work with,” they said in a statement issued by the National Women’s Council on behalf of the group.

Speaking to reporters at Government Buildings on Tuesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that while the constitution has served the State well, “it was not truly reflective of the Ireland we live in today and needed to be modernised in some respects”.

He was speaking after a cabinet meeting today approved plans for a referendum to amend Article 41.1.1, which currently recognises the family “as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society”, to define the family as “whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships”.

Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said the current wording does not speak to the values of the country and “means the exclusion of thousands of families from the recognition and the protection of the Constitution solely because those families aren’t based on marriage”.

A separate referendum will address Article 41.2, which currently recognises that “by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved”. This would be deleted under the proposals to be put to a vote next year.

Mr O’Gorman said the current wording “seeks to contain women in a very singular role, a role that’s completely divorced from the reality of women’s lives, women’s careers across our State today”.

A new article, 42B, would be inserted which recognises that the provision of care by members of a family “gives to society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved and shall strive to support such provision”. He said the current wording was an “archaic and sexist reference (which) has contributed nothing good to the lives of women in this country”.

A woman’s place is wherever she wants it to be, in the workforce, in education or in the home,” he said.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the 1937 Constitution was the bedrock of the law and government of Ireland but that the proposed changes “reflect the values of an inclusive and compassionate country - they reflect the reality that many more diverse models of families make up our society today”.

Minister for Education Norma Foley said the government wanted to “recognise the dynamic and diverse caring arrangements in Irish families today”. She said that State’s pledge to safeguard the instititution of marriage would remain in place but if the referendum passed, the family would encompass not just married couples but also unmarried couples, lone parents and their children in what she described as a process of “constitutional catch up”.

Regarding the decision not to include an explicit reference to gender equality, Mr Varadkar said the legal advice was that it could “weaken” the “all-encompassing commitment to equality within the constitution at present”.

“All citizens are equal before the law, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, social class or anything else.

“We believe by elevating any particular category, for example, that of sex based discrimination, it could unwittingly downgrade others, such as those relating to disability, race or ethnicity.”

The Taoiseach said the referendum would be conducted in a respectful manner but promised strong push back against “misinformation and distraction from any source”.

“We’re all aware that it’s far too easy for debate to become polarised and the only way to avoid this is to participate in an informed respectful conversation with everyone concerned”

The Taoiseach said he was concerned about the impact of misinformation, saying that the Marriage Equality referendum had been the subject of an attempt by “some people” to turn it into a referendum on surrogacy. He promised “robust” information campaigns, and recalled that tight referendums such as that on Children’s Rights had been subject to “extraneous arguments” and passed by small margins on low turnouts.

The Taoiseach said he was concerned about the impact of misinformation, saying that the Marriage Equality referendum had been the subject of an attempt by “some people” to turn it into a referendum on surrogacy. He promised “robust” information campaigns, and recalled that tight referendums such as that on Children’s Rights had been subject to “extraneous arguments” and passed by small margins on low turnouts.

The government also decided only to give constitutional referendum to care within a family a place in its new proposed wording, deviating from the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly, which said Article 41.2 should be replaced with language that recognised care within the home and the wider community.

Mr O’Gorman said that care within the family is “particularly unique” and “particularly important” and acted as a “massive support to the State”.

“We want to give it explicit constitutional recognition”, he said, which would place an onus on governments to support that care.

Mr O’Gorman said that many non-marriage based family relationships were already given protections under legislation, and the reforms to the Constitution were to extend certain protections in autonomy and decision making within the family unit, which are only bestowed on marital families - now they would be extended to cohabiting couples of one parent families.

The idea of extending protection to a “durable” relationship would probably lead to the concept of durability being tested in the courts through litigation. He said the change would be understood within the wider language of the constitution which describes marriage as a moral institution and a fundamental group within society. He said that language would form the “guardrails” for how courts would interpret the term “durable”, which he said was picked deliberately to ensure transient relationships were not given the same constitutional protections.

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