LEICESTER, United Kingdom – More than two-thirds of mothers with school-age children in the Republic of Ireland would prefer to stay at home to look after their children rather than go out to work if they could afford it, according to a new poll.
The survey by Amarach Research was commissioned by The Iona Institute, an Irish organisation that promotes the place of marriage and religion in society, with the nation facing a referendum on 8 March over the so-called “woman in home” clause of the constitution, which says the Irish state will “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”.
Supporters of changing the clause want to replace it with a new Article 42B, which says the State “recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, gives to society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved, and shall strive to support such provision”.
Earlier this month, Green Party Minister Catherine Martin commented on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the Irish Constitution is indicating that “a woman’s place is in the home”.
She added: “It’s not reflective of today’s society for our constitution to say that a woman’s place is in the home.”
Supreme Court Justice Marie Baker, however, has said that the constitution does not say “a woman’s place is in the home”, rather that mothers shouldn’t “have to go out to work” due to “economic necessity”.
The Amarach Research survey said 69 per cent of mothers with children under the age of 18 years old would prefer, if they could afford it, to stay at home with their children rather than go out to work.
In addition, it found 76 per cent of mothers said that women who work in the home are undervalued by society compared with women who work outside the home, and over 70 per cent of mothers do not feel valued by society for their work as mothers.
“The findings are extremely relevant to the upcoming referendum on carers,” said Professor Patricia Casey, who teaches psychiatry at the University College Dublin and at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. She is also a co-founder of the Iona Institute. “Currently, the Constitution acknowledges the importance of mothers, and it says they should not be forced out of the home by economic necessity.
“We see from this survey and others like it that the vast majority of mothers would prefer to stay at home with their children if they could afford it. This is exactly what the Constitution aims at, even if the State has failed to live up to the promise of the Constitution,” she added, giving her own situation as an example:
“I have been a working mother for most of my adult life. This is what I wanted, and Article 41.2 of the Constitution held me back in no way, shape or form.”
She noted that Children’s Minister, Roderic O’Gorman, has stated that “a woman’s place is wherever she wants it to be”, and Casey agrees that “that is exactly correct”.
But, she adds: “The trouble is that the policy of this and past governments has made it almost impossible for most mothers to stay at home with their children if that is what they want.
“If the Government was really on the side of mothers, it would make it easier for them to stay at home with their children if that is their wish, and it is the wish of the vast majority of them, as the Amarach poll tells us,” the professor says.
“But the Government seems to be on the side of the economy, not mothers. It wants to delete the one reference to mothers from the Constitution, the one reference to the home in the context of mothers, and the one reference to try and protect mothers from being forced out of the home. This is not right,” Casey adds.
In the UK, there has been similar criticism that the Conservative government continues to reduce women to their economic output, and that it prioritises women “in work” over those, such as women who choose to stay at home looking after children, who are “out of work”.
Independent Senator Michael McDowell told Gript, an Irish news agency, that he is “confident” the referendum would be defeated.
“The people who are determined not to be bamboozled by the government will come out to vote” he said, though he noted that “the great majority of people at the moment have limited access to the underlying facts and to what it’s all about”.
An Irish Times poll, however, shows 53 per cent of voters intend to vote ‘Yes’, with just 15 per cent saying they planned to vote ‘No’. The rest were either undecided or did not intend to vote.
Photo: Campaigners for the Love Both pro-life campaign canvass members of the public, urging people to vote ‘no’ in the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, Dublin, Ireland, 24 May 2018. (Photo credit should read BARRY CRONIN/AFP/Getty Images.)
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