Ireland said Tuesday it will hold two referendums on International Women’s Day, March 8, to amend decades-old constitutional references to “women in the home” and the “family.”
A proposed amendment would remove references in the EU member’s 1937 constitution to a woman’s “life within the home” and replace it with non-gender specific language, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told reporters in Dublin.
“The referendums will be held on March 8, 2024,” said Varadkar.
Ireland’s constitution was written when a puritanical brand of Irish Catholicism held sway over public and private life.
Article 41.2 in the constitution specifies that “by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.”
It adds that “mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”
The existing wording “no longer reflects modern life,” said Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin on Tuesday, calling it “outdated” language.
Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman told reporters that the “archaic” and “sexist” reference to a woman in the home “has contributed nothing.”
Another clause that refers to the family would also be amended so constitutional protection is not limited to marital families.
That change would “acknowledge that families may also be founded on other lasting relationships, other than marriage,” said Varadkar.
For example, a family which is headed by a lone parent or a family headed by grandparents or guardians, he said.
In recent years, Ireland voted by large majorities in referendums to open up abortion laws and allow same-sex marriage.
Before the vote on same-sex marriage, Varadkar came out publicly as gay.
The polls were seen as indicators of a wider liberalisation of Ireland’s once deeply conservative society.
The government is expected to approve final wording of the two votes Thursday.
