Victoria White (pictured) has an excellent piece
in today’s Irish Examiner arguing forcefully for the retention of
Article 41.2, which deals with women in the home.

White makes the excellent-and all too
frequently forgotten-point that the article was not designed to keep
women in the home, but to protect their rights:

“Article 41.2 recognises the
importance of their care work and defends it from economic attack.
Quite clearly it needs to refer to men as well as women. But chucking
it out would lessen the humanity of the Constitution. The clause was
never meant to immure women in their homes. It was meant to protect
their rights. When the clause was drafted in the early 1930s staying
home was considered by most to be a great privilege.

“Eamon de Valera was very influenced
by a little-known feminist historian called Ivy Pinchbeck who
analysed the situation of women after the Industrial Revolution and
reckoned it had made their lives better because it meant that
husbands could often earn enough to provide for their wives at home.”

She also notes that, while the clause
wasn’t invoked to oppose Charlie McCreevy’s tax individualisation
proposals, it could be used in the future to protect carers in the
home:

“But just because the clause has not
been used effectively doesn’t mean it couldn’t be. This may
become very important if the motor of western capitalism gets moving
again and Europe is suddenly looking for new workers. Instead of
importing them from outside the EU, they will look to women at home
with kids — what the OECD calls “a waste of human resources”.

“The EU’s Lisbon Strategy (2005)
committed Europeans to growing their percentage of women in the
workplace from 51 percent to 60 percent by 2010. They never asked
women how they felt about this because it didn’t matter. What
mattered were “jobs and growth”.

“The OECD’s Babies and Bosses
document (2005) which is widely quoted in Irish government policy,
actually suggests taking child benefit off women who don’t work
outside the home. That would learn them.”

The article, which is well worth
reading in full, can be read here.