Ireland should hold another referendum on women in the home - UN committee

[IwantToRetire]

Government should assess reasons referendum failed and not give up on issue, according to CEDAW.

In a report published on Monday, the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) expressed disappointment with the failure of the referendum to pass and suggested the Government should not give up on the issue.

“The committee recommends that the State party conduct an independent evaluation of the referendum, carry out information campaigns on the negative reinforcement by article 41.2 of gender stereotypes about women’s roles in the home and undertake inclusive public consultations to find alternative wording with a view to holding another constitutional referendum on amending article 41.2 of the Constitution to remove the stereotypical language on the role of women in the home,” it said.

The article says “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 amendment proposed to replace the clause with a more gender-neutral one on care but it was heavily defeated, with more than 70 per cent of those voting opposing the move.

Full article https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2025/07/07/ireland-should-hold-another-referendum-on-women-in-the-home-un-committee-says/

Threads from the time of the referendum - maybe more, but find MN's search function a bit unreliable.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5003865-terfs-and-the-irish-referendum

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4999605-march-8th-irish-referendum-on-mothers-in-the-home

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4883039-women-and-the-irish-constitution-sunlight-in-the-irish-times

If they wrote a decent amendment, with none of the crap they tried last time, I wouldn't object. Turn "mother" into carer in the home, covers the value of the action, not the person. And it might have decent long term ramifications for childcare, disability and elderly care too.
They can't attempt to refine family as anything else this time, which was my biggest objection last time. My mother has a longer relationship with her best friend than she did with my DF. Doesn't mean she's entitled to half the friends estate or to get a "family" immigration permit for her.

The referendum failed because there was a perception rightly or wrongly that they were taking women and motherhood out of the constitution. I’m dyed in the wool feminist and I voted against changing it because it was being propped up by woke progressive authoritarian nonsense.

The article says “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.

I bloody wish my government would recognise this. It's ridiculously hard to manage school and school activities, extra sports, volunteering for myself and my partner now that I've returned to almost full time work. It's not so much the money either it is the time. I can't duck up and do home readers or day time volunteering.

Welcome to 1992?

Whats the problem recognising the unpaid work that women do?

How many women are looking after parents inlaws or other family or friends or the GAA for free?
There is nothing saying that a woman must work only in the home if the UN kept reading they would have spotted that.

And mothers is a different word so clearly are a sub-class of women.

And at the moment (post 2018) there is a choice about joining the club or not

But remove the protection which should have applied but was not and which continues to be ignored re Mother and Baby Homes?

Can Irish people still buy and sell babies?

Per 42A.2.1 the State can take your child if "you" dont have the money to provide for your child.

Guess which family group are most at risk of poverty than others
Guess which group are let off the hook when it comes to enforcing court orders?

And who trusts that that this Irish Government will get any wording right when the current wording has been ignoring that section since the ink dried.

And turkeyboots if you mother is in an actual (sexual) relationship with her best friend she would be entitled (since 2010?) to ask the Courts to recognise the union and give her a share in her friends assets🤷‍♀️

@AnSolas if she is I really don't want to know!!! My point was really the last proposal had such huge loopholes around how family was defined that it would open to abuse. Including potentially demanding a share of your best friend estate. And you know someone would try.

If the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) really wants to do something for the rights of women in Ireland it should demand the repeal of the gender self recognition act, the re-insertion of 'sex' into the equality legislation, and the resumption of recording women and men by sex in all surveys and censuses.

The Constitution is just fine. Or would be, if women still existed in Ireland.

She could be 🙃🤣 the civil partnership act has a section for unmarried co-habiting couples from memory not bar on same sex claims.

Where there is money there is a family.

The only "problem" would be your DF if they are married and she cant prove they are seperated has her friend got a nice wee house😉

(did them lads in the Midlands get married after the marraige vote ? Twas one way to pass on the farm tax free 🤣 )

I remember seeing a documentary on RTE about these 2. We love a loophole!
Two heterosexual Irish men marry to avoid inheritance tax on property | Ireland | The Guardian share.google/ZV5zvZ7XEJ1BO9GoT

Have to say I picked up on the newspaper article as I remember the threads from last year.

But have now looked at the full report and this is only a small part of it.

And there doesn't seem anything about a woman's right to an abortion.

You can download the full report from https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2FC%2FIRL%2FCO%2F8&Lang=en

Women do not have a right to an abortion just the right to elect TDs to vote on it 👀

40.3.3° Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.

I just meant I would have thought CEDAW would have thought that by now women should have the right to an abortion in Ireland, rather than saying the issue of women in the home was something a further referendum should take place about.

There is something fundamentally dodgy about the UN telling a government that they have to change the will of the people because the UN doesn't like what they believe.

I really think there is a good chance that within my lifetime international organisations like the UN, or the international courts, could cease to exist meaningfully. Because they are overstepping and people and nations won't put up with that kind of imperialism.

Classic Ireland; keep holding referenda until you get the outcome you want 🙄

I really don't think that the wording in the constitution is the reason for the extra unpaid labour that women do. And I think that acknowledging it is actually pretty bloody good.

Fix the labour, then we can look at changing the constitution.

The UN is captured. The intent of changing the clause is to erase women further. Ireland should have none of it. A very progressive clause accepting that the unpaid work women do is of value to the economy. The next step is to include caring responsibilities and breast feeding in GDP, not erasing women some more.

They'll get another bloody nose if they try that nonsense. It's meat and drink to the far right nut jobs who are always on about the UN , Bill Gates, the secret world government etc etc.

Anyway it's not a great idea to annoy Irish mammies in general.

I wonder why the newspapers in Ireland chose to focus on this part of the CEDAW report (which barely gets a line) amongst all sorts of other issues?

Ta fuck with the lads who ave no intent of aving their asses handed to them again?

nithing like reminding em of how letting off the nippers who need minding by their mammys to hold the vote to say mammys dont matter didnt work out so well 💅

Even letting the young wans get home from college with the washing didnt help either 🤣