Ireland will vote on eliminating the constitution's "sexist" references to women.

 

DUBLIN: In an effort to modernise its socially conservative 1937 founding document, Ireland is set to vote on Friday, International Women's Day, to repeal constitutional passages to the significance of a woman's "life within the home."

The constitution includes a paragraph acknowledging that “by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved,” despite the fact that societal transformation in the formerly strongly Catholic country has led to the repeal of restrictions on abortion and same-sex marriage.

The vote, which is being held on International Women's Day, according to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, is an opportunity to remove some "very old-fashioned, very sexist language about women."

While advocating for a "yes" vote in central Dublin on Wednesday, Orla O'Connor, director of Ireland's National Women's Council, stated that "a woman's place is wherever she wants it to be and nothing less is acceptable in our constitution."

The state "shall endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home," according to a second paragraph that is scheduled for replacement.