We’re No Longer a Subspecies ... but Still Not Quite Equal

Herald
June 12, 2014

http://www.herald.ie/opinion/were-no-longer-a-subspecies-but-still-not-quite-equal-30347784.html

In the Dail this week, as an inquiry into mother and baby homes was announced, our Taoiseach Enda Kenny made another impassioned speech condemning the wrongs of Irish history.

After an emotional apology to the Magdalene women (many of whom have yet to receive compensation, some of whom have died waiting) and a heartfelt address about Church wrongdoing, you’d think he wouldn’t still have that fire in him.

But, it seems, we all have that fire in us when it comes to historical injustices and righting past wrongs.

Or, at least, talking about righting past wrongs.

I don’t doubt that he was sincere in doing so, but history shows that political and media outrage at the dehumanisation of a marginalised group rarely leads anywhere. Just look at direct provision.

As one Bessborough baby told me yesterday, people knew. And every so often, we all wring our hands and we spend days or weeks raking up internal grief, then forget about it again with vague promises that something will be done.

In her words, what we need now is “a cut off, and justice”.

In the same speech, Mr Kenny said the days when women were treated as an inferior sub-species were over.

In many ways, this is true. Laws protect our employment rights and our right to education.

But many of our laws are not just antiquated, but work firmly against any notion that women can be full members of society, and not dependent on someone else for their life, their wellbeing and their worth as a person.

abortion

Irish abortion law equalises the life of a living, breathing, adult woman with thoughts and feelings and responsibilities, to that of a cluster of cells with the potential, someday, to become a person.

From pre-Famine infanticide, which was common to hide the shame and stigma of pregnancy, through the era of Magdalene laundries and mother and baby homes, through the years of the boat to England and the witch hunt of a Kerrywoman with the temerity to get pregnant by a married man, it’s clear that women and their problems have been, if not an inferior sub-species, just not quite as important as men.

Our primary function, according to the constitution, is still mothering.

Our place is in the home - relying on somebody else to bring home the bacon, because there is no provision in these same laws to recognise work in the home as a contribution to society.