Let’s say Yes to a better Ireland for women & families
With one day until vote, Justice Minister makes her case in double referendum
I HOPE you will take the time to vote tomorrow. And I hope you will vote Yes and Yes.
I will be voting that way, and when I do so, I believe I will be voting for a more modern, inclusive Ireland.
Our Constitution matters. It matters that its language and its contents reflect the Ireland we are and the Ireland we want to become.
So let’s vote to recognise the fact that many different structures actually do make up families. And when it comes to care, let’s vote to acknowledge ALL the family members who provide it to one another.
Gender inequality has played out harmfully in the lives of many women and children across our country.
Years of oppressive social and policy practices that sought to confine women’s roles to the domestic sphere and to moralistically define the family have had an impact. We cannot simply forget that fact.
And while it’s fair to say that we have made many improvements on equality between men and women in the last number of decades, the journey to full gender equality is not over.
Inequality takes time to dismantle. Change is always a step-by-step process. And while no one step can offer a full solution, each one we do take progresses us further.
In my role as Minister for Justice, I have been honoured to meet with many women and children who faced the historical injustices of our Ireland, as well as many survivors and activists for domestic sexual and gender based violence.
Each in turn have inspired me with their strength, their courage, and their determination to make our country a better place for women of today and for their children.
It is for them that I will be voting Yes Yes on March 8.
I will be voting ‘Yes’ to acknowledge the many different families in society.
I am not happy to say unmarried parents and their children, grandparents and grandchildren, or long-term couples are not ‘families’ because their relationships are not
based on marriage. We all know people in these situations and we all unquestionably see them as ‘families’.
And as for the women who found themselves pregnant ‘out of wedlock’ and faced a choice between being ‘sent away’ before returning without their child or face social isolation, stigma, and shame, well we should simply never have denied that their child was their family member. So let’s make progress here. And let’s also move on from any idea that women don’t have a choice other than to be ‘in the home’.
Things were far from easy or straightforward when that view was accepted in society.
Sadly it is still the case that many women and children live in fear of violence in Irish homes, but the idea that in recent history this was actually socially and legally acceptable is horrific.
We have made much progress in protecting women and children from violence, and it has been my great privilege as Justice Minister to be able to continue to build on the work of the women before me, to ensure that we move towards a society with zero tolerance of domestic sexual and gender-based violence. But language is powerful. And I believe we need to remove any language which suggests, in any way, that home ‘duties’ are uniquely women’s ones.
This change will bring our Constitution in line with the views of the vast majority of us. By making it, I believe we will be moving towards a society recognised for its liberalism, tolerance and modernity.
We have demonstrated our drive to do this before, by voting Yes for divorce, marriage equality and for Repeal of the 8th Amendment.
Let’s continue along that path. Let’s vote for further progress, for full equality.
Let’s vote Yes Yes on Friday.