The Irish have largely rejected in a referendum a modification of the references to women and the family in their country’s Constitution, drawn up in 1937 and heir to the long and strong influence of the Catholic Church on public and private life. A symbolic blow for women, and going against a political class whose main parties had defended the ‘yes’ vote, Irish voters disapproved of the broadening of the concept of family beyond the notion of marriage, and the deletion of the text of the priority role of mothers in ensuring “domestic duties” in a home.
The first proposed amendment – on the definition of family – saw the ‘no’ win with 67.69% of the votes, according to the official results announced around 7 p.m. The result on the second amendment will be known later in the evening, but even before the announcement of the results, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, whose center-right government had initiated the reform, had acknowledged his rejection.
Little participation
“It was our responsibility to convince a majority of people to vote ‘yes’ and we failed to do so,” he declared to the press, while many political leaders explain this failure by the confusing wording of the submitted text. to the vote. This referendum aroused little enthusiasm, with participation not exceeding 50% in most of the 39 constituencies.
Ireland, a European Union country with 5.3 million inhabitants, legalized marriage for same-sex couples in 2015, and abortion in 2018. The government was counting on this double referendum, organized on 8 March, International Women’s Rights Day and at a time when France ratified the inclusion of the right to abortion in its own Constitution, to further erase the mark left by the Catholic Church in the country’s institutions.
“The people have spoken”
“It’s a sad day for those who have been campaigning for decades to get rid of these sexist words” in the Constitution, Labor Senator Marie Sherlock responded on RTE radio. The director of the National Women’s Council, Orla O’Connor said that this vote should serve as a “wake-up call” for women’s rights in Ireland. “The people have spoken. They have made their voice heard and must be heard. The government’s proposals have failed,” said the leader of Sinn Fein, Mary Lou McDonald, a ‘yes’ supporter, accusing the executive for not having consulted sufficiently upstream on the proposed reform.
“It’s a significant victory for the people against the political establishment,” Peadar Toibin, leader of the conservative Aontu party, who supported the ‘no’ vote, told AFP. Before the vote, Leo Varadkar estimated that a ‘no’ victory would take the country “a step backwards” by maintaining “the very old-fashioned language about women in the home”.
Vague wording
Until a few days before the election, polls predicted a fairly easy ‘yes’ victory, but the latest polls had revealed growing uncertainty. Voters had to decide on two questions. The first concerned the definition of family, proposing to expand it beyond that based on marriage, to also include “lasting relationships” such as cohabiting couples and their children. The second question proposed erasing a reference deemed outdated on the role of women in the home, which suggests that they have a duty to take care of other people under their roof.
A new, broader formula would have made all members of a family responsible for caring for each other. Opponents of these changes had criticized vague wording, particularly on the second question, and the disappearance of the words “woman” and “mother” from the text. Activists for the rights of disabled people also accused the text of disempowering the State in terms of the care and support of these people.