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Ireland Rejects Removing ‘Women in the Home’ Language From Constitution

Experts say voters may have been too confused by language in the referendum to support it.

Ireland overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would have removed language from its constitution stating women’s roles belong in the home. The failure, which came on International Women’s Day, doesn’t mean that Ireland is necessarily shifting rightward in its values. Instead, experts say, it reflects a referendum campaign that may have been too confusing for voters to support it. The original clause, long loathed by women’s rights advocates, states that a woman supports the state and the common good “by her life within the home” and promises the government will “endeavor to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labor to the neglect of their duties in the home.” The defeated referendum doesn’t explicitly mention women at all, using the gender-neutral language of caregivers and a broad definition of family—both of which may have only befuddled voters. Despite the outcome, Ireland has a strongly liberal record on recent social issues: The country repealed its abortion ban in 2018, legalized gay marriage in 2015, and ended its divorce ban in 1995.