Ireland government in talks to define ‘woman’, 'family'

Ireland government officials are meeting this September to replace an article in the Constitution which refers to a “woman’s duties in the home”, but they are unsure with what it should be replaced.

In Article 41.2 of Ireland’s Constitution, “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.” 

Last year the Irish Government’s Joint Committee on Gender Equality called for a referendum on the article, demanding it be deleted and replaced with text that is less “sexist” and more “gender-neutral”. All proposed replacement texts omit the word “woman” and insert the word “family":

In particular, the State recognises the right to respect for private and family life. The State shall, therefore, meet its obligation to take reasonable measures to support care within and outside of the home.

But government officials are now struggling to define words like “woman” and “family”. Ireland Media Minister Catherine Martin said in a press briefing this week that the government will be “discussing” how to define “woman” in the course of negotiations over the new wording.

Martin nervously made the remarks in response to a question by Gript Media correspondent Ben Collins, who asked her to define “woman”.

“This is something that the government is discussing and it's very important that we get that wording correct,” Martin answered. “So in relation to the actual wording in the referendum I should hope that we’d come to an agreement on that wording in the coming weeks. It’s a really important referendum. It’s something that I advocated for when I was chair of the Women’s Caucus and that this would lead to a referendum.”

Collins pressed that the minister had just a few minutes before boasted about how she champions women in sports. “So I’m wondering, do you have a personal definition of what a ‘woman’ means?” 

Martin then responded that the term is irrelevant. In a slightly incoherent answer, she appeared to suggest that the only matter of importance is that the word be stricken from the text.

“I think that the question is not relevant to the referendum itself because as in the issue that is present at the minute in relation to the exact wording of a referendum and having the referendum is absolutely essential.”