Fight for rights of stay-at-home mothers

A DELEGATION from our group, Mothers at Home, recently met with the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution in Leinster House.

Our delegation called for support for mothers who want to be free to devote all their time to the work of home-making without being stigmatised by society or penalised financially by the state.

We called for the retention of the articles in the constitution that supported the traditional family unit, including the mothers’ rights article 41.2, which recognises the value to the state of the work of the stay-at-home mother. We rejected the suggestion that this article was in any way outdated.

Our submission concluded:

“What is outdated, though, is the strain of feminism that has coloured the thinking of the Irish Government and world governments for the past three or four decades.

“This type of feminism (which is marked by a negative and indeed hostile attitude towards men, marriage and motherhood) is no longer accepted, and attitudes to women are already beginning to change in many countries, as witnessed by the growing number of national and international conferences supporting the natural law understanding of the family.

“Mothers have found their true voice and this voice will be heard louder and clearer on the world stage in the future because they now know their true worth.

“They now know that the hand that rocks the cradle rocks the system.”

Mothers at Home is seeking a place at the decision-making table of government so that the voice of the women who want to be full-time home-makers can be heard - as well as those who wish to engage in other work without having to choose between relinquishing their family life or enduring the negative consequences of continual stress affecting their own equilibrium and the harmony of the family.

We want the Government to take immediate action to put an end to all forms of discrimination, legal, economic, psychological and cultural, against women who work full-time in their homes as home-makers and child-carers. Our other aims include tax exemption for families with children and payment of a non means-tested allowance to the home-maker mother whose husband is the sole breadwinner.

Norah Bennis

President

Mothers at Home

16 Revington Park

North Circular Road

Limerick