Sarah Harte: Amending a clause in Constitution will do little for equality of women

It was always a dewy-eyed narrative that mothers were valued in this country, writes Sarah Harte

A woman protests during the Kerry Babies Tribunal; Joanne Hayes was portrayed as a woman of loose morals for getting pregnant out of ‘wedlock’.

We can agree we have progressed a long way since the Kerry Babies case, when Joanne Hayes was constructed as a woman of loose morals for becoming a mother out of ‘wedlock’.

Historically, part of our cultural fixation with mothers undoubtedly stemmed from the Marian version of Catholicism that we embraced which placed the Virgin Mary at its centre.