Protecting women from domestic and sexual violence, ensuring access to safe and legal abortions and affordable childcare have topped a wishlist for women in 2015, according to the results of a National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) poll.
Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas, which falls on Tuesday, is the ideal time to look at what women want for 2015, said Orla O’Connor, NWCI director .
“The Government needs to prioritise and invest in women’s equality in 2015, so that we have something to celebrate on January 6th, 2016,” Ms O’Connor said after results of the organisation’s poll were released.
In the lead-up to the New Year, NWCI conducted a poll among members asking them about their hopes for the Government’s priorities in 2015. The poll consisted of 10 issue-based questions. It was on social media over 10 days and received 600 responses.
“That the three most prominent issues were violence against women, abortion and affordable childcare was no big shock,” Ms O’Connor said.
“Male violence is still an inescapable backdrop in the lives of one in five women in Ireland. Equally, the issue of safe and legal abortion is one which has affected hundreds of thousands of women since the Eighth Amendment was inserted into the Constitution in 1983 and was rarely out of the headlines last year, while the lack of affordable, accessible childcare is a massive barrier to women’s equal participation in the workforce.”
Nollaig na mBan
The director of Ireland’s national women’s membership organisation said that today is the perfect day to assess the state of play for women here.
“Nollaig na mBan is a day where traditionally men took over the housekeeping duties, something which in 2015 still predominantly falls to women. Women are paid less for the work we do, we continue to provide the majority of the care work and as of yet, women are not close to being equally represented in a representative democracy.”
Ms O’Connor said “there can be no real equality between women and men if women experience gender-based violence on this large-scale.”
Reproductive rights were also a concern to poll respondents, who placed this second in a list of 10 concerns for women in Ireland.
“Doctors are restricted from exercising their best clinical judgment, maternity services are affected and the wishes of a woman’s next of kin after she has died can possibly be ignored,” said Ms O’Connor.
Caring for children is also high on most women’s list of priorities and women think the Government could do better, the survey found.
Public spending on childcare in Ireland as a percentage of GDP is low and childcare costs are among the highest in Europe “averaging €800 to €1,000 a month for a full-time place,” Ms O’Connor said.
The NWCI is calling on the Government to introduce a second free pre-school year and to make sure paternity leave is introduced “to send the message that fathers also have an important role to play when it comes to care.”
