LAST year was a year to remember for women’s rights. ‘Me Too’ was a phrase heard around the globe as artists in many spheres made sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination visible. It was a lesson that went way beyond the arts.
The referendum on the 8th Amendment to the Irish constitution made the experience of women visible in multiple ways. It was not merely about the personal heartbreak of individual women, it was also about systemic oppression of Irish women and children, and reached into the earth of Tuam, County Galway, where babies’ bodies had been buried in an unconsecrated septic tank by nuns and priests. It was the year that celebrated 100 years of some women’s franchise and paid homage to suffragettes and the first woman MP, Constance Markievitz.
With the election of Clare Bailey as leader of the Green Party we now have women leaders of four of the six main parties. In many ways it all seemed seminal. That women’s agendas could no longer be ignored. However, we are all too aware of its limitations too. The words ‘The North is Next’ regarding access to full choices in pregnancy clearly require the addition of ‘at some point’.
Women’s participation in politics, while improving, remains poor. In the forthcoming council election watch how many women are standing in winnable seats and watch which parties do what. A fair enough group photo of gender balance announcing candidates is often at quite a distance from the elected officials’ photograph afterwards.
Just as in 1918, contemporary strides on women’s rights need to be carefully looked after in the years to come. While Cumann na mBan and feminism were integral to the operation of the First Dáil and the appropriation of public life during the Tan War, what we witnessed afterwards was an assault on women’s rights, from the constitution to the maternity ward afterwards. In the north the oppression of women went hand in glove with the oppression of the nationalist population in the right wing statelet.
Right now, there is a conversation happening about what a new Ireland might look like. The conversation focuses on constitutional rights, economic interests and demographics. Campaigns feed into it with social and cultural rights featuring intermittently.
What we have failed to do is insert the vibrant and rich debate last year on women’s rights into this national debate in the meaningful way. For instance, women who cannot be equal participants in our society because their citizenship and culture are denied to them are doubly oppressed as women are unequal participants in so many avenues of life.
Just as in 1916-18 when Irish suffragettes gave expression to their fight for self-determination being linked to their country’s fight for self-determination, we need to seek out space and language for a modern Irish women’s vision. Indeed, in those years Irish suffragettes’ colours were not purple white and green – they were orange, white and green. It was a bold statement of intent: that women would not be written out of the Proclamation or a new Ireland.
That new Ireland was never realised with the imposition of partition. Specific attention must now be paid to women’s participation, needs and aspirations as we build our new vision for a transformed Ireland.