Government Confirm Next Referendum And It Massively Concerns Women
Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan has announced that the government is to go ahead with plans to put the deletion of Article 41.2 of the Constitution - which deals with a woman's place in the home - to a referendum.
Mr. Charlie Flanagan is today seeking cabinet approval as to whether the scheduled referendum, on the 26th of October - which will offer voters the choice to remove both this clause and the one pertaining to the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution - will go ahead.
The clause, which has attracted much criticism over the years for its evident anachronism, 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."
The decision to put it forward for repeal in its entirety has raised eyebrows. A Constitutional Convention and departmental taskforce recommended that the clause be made gender neutral and refer to care-givers both "in the home" but also "beyond the home". This advice however was shunned in favour of simply removing the clause as there would apparently be far too many possible legal ramifications from such a move.
The proposal was brought before the cabinet a number of weeks ago but failed to pass after Ministers Katherine Zappone and Regina Doherty voted against it, arguing that they should first seek approval on it from the Oireachtas women's caucus. In 2013, some 88% of the Constitutional Convention voted that it should not be included in the Constitution in its current form.
The clause, in its current gendered form, is a Constitutional hangover from a different era. While it's intentions of ensuring that children are provided with enough care within a family unit - in whatever form that may take - are inarguably well-founded, retaining it in its current gendered form is untenable and if it is legally too complex to reword, then it ought be removed in its entirety.
H/T: Irish Times