Today is Nollaig na mBan – a day when traditionally women got together, letting the men take over the housekeeping. When our mothers sat around kitchen tables discussing the lives of future generations of women, I wonder what their greatest hopes were?
In the lead-up to the new year, the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) conducted a poll among our members and supporters, asking them about their hopes for what the Government's priorities would be in 2015. The poll, consisting of 10 issue-based questions, was conducted on social media over 10 days and received almost 600 responses.
When we looked at the results and the issues ranked as very important, three stood out immediately: protecting women from domestic and sexual violence, which was viewed as very important by 87 per cent; ensuring access to safe and legal abortions, seen by 81 per cent as very important; and affordable, accessible childcare, with 73 per cent believing it to be very important.
Domestic violence, reproductive rights and childcare are three areas in which the Government can make a difference, giving women something to celebrate on January 6th, 2016.
It is no surprise that protecting women from domestic and sexual violence is a massive priority. It may be 2015 but one in five women are still victims of domestic violence and we still have only a third of the European Union-recommended refuge spaces. We are light years away from recognising and understanding the serious impact domestic violence has on the lives of women and in many instances, their children.
Ireland must show its commitment to eradicating all forms of male violence against women by signing, ratifying and implementing, as a matter of urgency, the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention.
Domestic violence legislation
The new domestic violence legislation and the new strategy on violence against women, which the Government will introduce in 2015, must establish domestic violence as a crime in its own right with the potential of serious sentences. The Government must also act on the recommendations in the Garda Inspectorate report that highlighted the failings by An
Garda Síochána
to pursue domestic violence as a serious crime.
Specialist units in each Garda division should be established to address domestic and sexual violence so as to develop an expertise within the force that supports the victim and pursues the perpetrators to arrests and conviction.
We also need to see a stronger commitment to investing in domestic and sexual violence services. There can be no real equality between women and men if women experience gender-based violence on this large scale.
If anything became clear in 2014, it was the stranglehold that the Eighth Amendment places on women’s bodies. From a migrant woman forced to bear her rapist’s child to a clinically dead woman used as an incubator to a non- viable foetus, it has become abundantly clear that the Constitution is no place for women’s reproductive rights and bodily choices.
NWCI has long highlighted the restrictions Article 40.3.3 places on women who cannot afford to travel, migrant women and women with disabilities, as well as how it prevents doctors from exercising their best clinical judgment, does not respect the wishes of next of kin and affects other areas of healthcare such as maternity services.
We have already had A,B, C, D, X and Y cases – we cannot wait until more tragic cases cause us to run out of letters of the alphabet, and we cannot ignore the 4,000 women forced to travel every year to access safe and legal abortions. Several key Government figures have spoken about how the 8th Amendment places women in very real danger. They must take action now.
The absence of support for families to access affordable quality childcare remains one of the most significant barriers to women’s equal participation in society. As it stands, public spending in childcare and early education in Ireland as a percentage of GDP are among the lowest in the OECD, at 0.4 per cent.
Childcare costs
Furthermore, childcare costs are among the most expensive, with childcare costing anywhere between €800 and €1,000 a month for a full-time place. To maximise its return on investment in childcare, the Government must introduce a second free preschool year.
The Family Leave Bill, to be introduced this year, also provides the Government with a real opportunity to allow women better balance work and family life. As it stands, our family leave policies are still based on the notion that women are the primary carers of children.
NWCI will campaign in 2015 so that the Government will introduce a period of paid parental leave so that parents can be with their child in their first year of life if they choose, with a combination of six months’ maternity leave and six months’ parental leave. Paternity leave must be available for fathers to take in the first weeks of their child being born, a separate entitlement in addition to maternity leave.
These issues are not the only ones that require action, and more women in politics and senior decision-making roles would undoubtedly make a difference. If we want Ireland to be a different place for both women and men in 2015 we must all take a proactive role to ensure women’s rights and equality are at the centre of positive change in our society.
Orla O’Connor is director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland. For a full breakdown of the results of the NWCI survey, see nwci.ie