Constitutional provision protecting mothers in the home set to be deleted

20th June 2018

The Cabinet has agreed to hold a referendum to delete the article of the Constitution that grants some protection to mothers from having to work outside the home due to economic pressure. The clause is often disparagingly and falsely referred to as the “woman’s place is in the home” article.

The decision to delete the article completely comes as a surprise because when the Constitutional Convention examined the issue in 2013, 98 per cent voted in favour of amending the wording to render it gender-neutral. It also proposed to include other carers both “in the home” and “beyond the home”. However, the Minister for Justice asked the Cabinet to hold a referendum to repeal the clause in its entirety on foot of a decision by an internal taskforce in the Department of Justice.

Article 41.2 of the Constitution 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 article, however, was never given a legislative articulation, nor was it ever tested in court.