Ireland to keep ‘sexist’ constitutional language about mother’s role

Ireland looked set to reject proposals to replace constitutional references to the makeup of a family and a “mother’s duties in the home” in a significant defeat for the government.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar had pitched the referendum vote, held on Friday to coincide with International Women’s Day, as a chance to delete some “very old-fashioned, very sexist language about women”.

He said the government would accept the results.

“I think it’s clear at this stage that the family amendment and the care amendment referendums have been defeated – defeated comprehensively on a respectable turnout,” he said

“…It was our responsibility to convince the majority of people to vote ‘Yes’ and we clearly failed to do so.”

Official results are expected later in the day.

The two proposals would have made changes to the text of article 41 in the Irish constitution, written in 1937.

The first asked citizens to expand the definition of family from a relationship founded on marriage to include other durable relationships, whether founded on marriage or not.

The second would have replaced language surrounding a mother’s duties with a clause recognising care provided by family members by “reason of the bonds that exist among them”.

In effect, the proposal to spread the burden of care for people with disabilities to the entire family from only the mother became a row about the extent or willingness of the state to support carers.