Two referendums will be held on ‘gender equality’, marriage, and the work of mothers in the home [1] and they are still theoretically set for November, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed. It remains to be seen how ‘gender’ will be defined.
However, the wording for the amendments has yet to be agreed and the date of a vote might be pushed into the new year.
The Government intends deleting the protection that mothers should not be forced to work outside the home–a constitutional provision that was never given legislative force–and replace it with new definitions of family, home and equality.
Mr Varadkar said: “The intention of the referendum is to delete the very sexist language that exists in our Constitution talking about the role of women in the home and their duties in the home. We will replace that with wording that values care, and the value of family care in particular, and then also wording that recognises that there are many different types of families in Ireland now.”
The Taoiseach added that the Government’s intention remained to hold the referendum at the end of November but he had to be cognisant of the newly formed Electoral Commission, which has said it needs three or four months to prepare properly for a referendum.