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ESSENTIALISM HAS BEEN described as an essence which categorises race, gender and personality. Professor Siobhán Mullally notes that a commitment to the ideal of ‘separate spheres’, based on the complementarity of male and female roles alongside the presumption of natural sexual differences between women and men is given legal recognition in the language of Article 41.2.1.
Traditional gender roles also serve as prescriptive claims about how girls and women should act. Thus, it may be claimed that all females are naturally better at care work. This type of claim may be followed by the claim that females should be the primary caretakers. Some men and women, however, prefer to work full-time in the home. Their choices need to be fully respected by us all.
Despite the very welcome involvement of men in the care role, women continue to do the bulk of caring and domestic work. Data from the 2011 Census reveals that 61 per cent of carers are women. They provide 66 per cent of all care hours, while 86 per cent of childcare is carried out by women.
Care obligations, however, may limit the individual’s active participation in Irish society at the social, cultural and economic level. Successful entrepreneur Sarah Níc Lochlain has argued that if we want more women to become entrepreneurs and help rebuild the economy, then a national childcare scheme is needed.
Care provision is not a gender-specific issue. The need for ‘Cradle to Grave’ care provision is an issue for all human beings: male and female. Professor Kathleen Lynch said:
No human being, no matter how rich or powerful, can survive from birth without care and attention; many would die at different points in their lives, if seriously ill or in an accident, without care.
Significantly, in February 2013 the Constitutional Convention voted overwhelmingly to radically alter the “Women in Home” Clause in the Irish Constitution, rendering it more gender inclusive in its language and orientation. 97 per cent also supported more Government action to increase participation of women in public and political life.
If these recommendations are adopted and implemented they would foster a more positive environment for women and men who are carers to operate without constraint, realising their full potential as active citizens. The provision of complete care provision is necessary for a sustainable society and economy. Furthermore, increasing entrepreneurship is currently a critical policy concern. To achieve optimal outcomes, a comprehensive care system needs to be integral to ‘entrepreneurial ecosystems’ as business and government seek to embed enterprise and entrepreneurship across Irish society.
Women need to be present and active on issues that affect them and their families. These issues include child, elder care and reproductive health. Above all, women need to be present when economic-related decisions, such as banking, finance, are made because these decisions can have a profound impact on their lives.
The Beijing Conference (1995) recommended that the international community and civil society, including non-governmental organisations and the private sector, act to reduce inequality between men and women in power-sharing and decision-making. Last year, along with other groups, the 5050 Group campaigned successfully for the introduction of legislation to increase the number of women on the ballot paper at general elections in the Republic of Ireland.
Last year, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, signed that legislation – the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act – into law. The Act ensures that women comprise 30 per cent of party candidates in the next general election. The figure will increase to 40 per cent seven years thereafter.
More women elected to the Oireachtas, while not a solution for our socio-economic ills, is likely to promote gender-sensitised care and family policies. Policy and practice models drawn from the Northern European context could be particularly useful. These models may facilitate greater choice for both men and women as they seek to reconcile the competing demands of work and family life.
Margaret O’Keefe is a lecturer in Community Development at Cork Institute of Technology. Both Margaret O’Keefe and Collette Finn are members of the 5050 Group – an organisation that are looking to achieve gender parity in Irish politics by the year 2020.
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That’s 2 less people travelling by plane – surly that’s saving the environment? Otherwise it’s going to listen to rich people telling us how to live!!!
@Shane Cormican: It tells you all you need to know. Even FF have excommunicated the green-coloured weasel knowing he’s getting ran from politics in a few weeks. Glorious.
@Marvin Dollery: can’t wait to vote the green toad out
How many front door keys has Rodders got cut in the last couple of years? Top man offering accommodation to people who have no connection whatsoever to this country.
@Gerard Carey: but they will have when they get refugee status and than bring their husbands and 7 children. Providing accomodations play key role in this scheme so Roderick was right!
@Sergej Simonov: Are u for real
The Green Party can take responsibility for emissions being slow to fall in Ireland. They halved the EV grant and reduced retro-fitting grants for homes. All at time when these should have been increased. The majority of EVs are out of reach for most of the population anyway and depreciation is steep, when compared to a diesel/petrol equivalent.
But a poxy, vitue-signalling, green flash on a number plate will really make a difference to climate action
@Si Con: Yup. Their punitive ‘build nothing’ strategy has failed them. They need a new generation that aren’t afraid to provide the infrastructure we need by moving with the tide and not always trying to swim against it.
Hey Roderic, you can always go yourself and get a one way ticket while you’re at it and don’t forget to bring the rest of brigade and tell the world that we’ve overburdened the Taxpayers in Ireland with extra taxes and made sure they are left with very little money at the end of the working week and don’t forget to the world that you have the gates still open to facilitate illegal migration into Ireland.
@Tommy: he needs to go.
@Tommy: Amen to that!
Hopefully, this tool will be history in a few weeks. He loves the sound of his own voice.
Greens are never happy.
Rodders made millions for hoteliers by giving them and some politicians eye watering amounts of money to house the flotsam and jetsam of the world. Dump your boarding pass in the bin , line up for a free house , unga bunga
Apparently this guy responsible for all of this missing kids. Should be arrested.
@Basildon Joe: you’re suggesting that he is criminally responsible. How so, Joe?
@Kevin Kerr: he is responsible from a government perspective as minister for children. Don’t stir my words.
@Basildon Joe: I’m not stirring any words. You said he should be arrested – only those suspected of having committed a crime would be arrested
@Kevin Kerr: In other words, you’re saying that there’s nothing anyone can do and the weasel is untouchable.
@Marvin Dollery: no
@Kevin Kerr: He is criminally negligent!
@Brian Hunt: really? Ok so, well bring that evidence to the Gardai
@Kevin Kerr: LOL, you’ve been reduced to single word responses.
@Marvin Dollery: that’s all your comment deserved in response. Consider yourself muted
@Kevin Kerr: No, it’s all you could reply with because you were exposed.
@Kevin Kerr: WOW such a mature & effective debate….. You REALLY SCARED him,lol
@Basildon Joe: u relly are deluded
@Brian Hunt: grow up
@Sheila McNulty: Listen Nulters, your obvious bias towards these dangerous muppets is making you look both foolish and naive. You’ve a lot of growing up to do yourself, sweetie.
@Kevin Kerr: you can be complict in various ways , incompetence, dereliction of duty,turn a blind eye, failure to report crime etc etc.
@Brian Hunt: well have him arrested & see how far u get
Nobody should go to that out of touch UN elitist boondoggle get together by so called celebrities and their thousands of private jets.
It’s simple Roddy, he’s putting distance between your party and loopy green policies.
He doesn’t want to associate with treasonous lizards who are hellbent on destroying life for Irish Citizens.
@Marvin Dollery: he hasn’t seen the 1995 documentary Waterworld.
@Pól Pot: Hopper went full John Pilger. Mandatory viewing in schools, please.
For the Green crackpot party there is a lot more disappointment to come.
Why don’t yourself and Ray go and make a romantic weekend of it!
The cult climate summit is always a great side-show entertainment
This country has been accused of ethnic cleansing. In 2023 they used a blockade of the Lachin corridor and a land invasion to cause the evacuation of the Armenian population out of Nagorno-Karabakh.
But O’Gorman doesn’t mind…
@AnthonyK: Woderic doesn’t give a damn about the Irish, never mind Armenians!
Roll on the 29th get rid of that lot
They have no need for the Greens anymore. So they are of no relanve to either FF or FG now and Rodders is lost. And no one is really worried about climate change more the Company and Health and Homless and Immagration. Climate well down the line
Lovely spot is Azerbaijan.
Whining bit@h.
If his colleague Pippa Hackett had not eviscerated the forest estate, we’d be locking up carbon like crazy.
Due to Green ideology, we are now prohibited from planting 90% of available land.
The Greens have caused mayhem. He’d do well to belt up and reduce his CO2 emissions.
I’m grateful he’s not going to breed.
These Green people are spanners. Just look at all the roads in Dublin they have destroyed to put in cycle lanes that nobody uses. You get to sit in traffic for hours now to make a relatively short journey.
Hmmm
Rodders no one cares about your meeting
Stay there and don’t come back you clown.
So so
have your say