Feminism in Ireland has had to contend with a set of issues that are specific to the Irish experience. Discuss.
Feminism in Ireland has had to contend with a set of issues that are specific to the Irish experience. Discuss.
It is often said now, that Ireland is a "modern European state". Men and women are legally equal; through European equality legislation this must be the case. However, Ireland's history has had quite a bleak story to tell about women. In this essay, that history will be traced. The struggle women undertook in order to be allowed to vote, the female war for independence alongside the more publicised male effort and the constitutional frailties that still exist will all be described in the essay. The contemporary women's movement will also be discussed, taking in issues such as contraception, divorce, abortion and working rights, which preoccupied women in post-revolutionary Ireland. These problems, although prominent in all Western countries at the time, had particular relevance for Irish women and in many cases were far harder to overcome. Although the "modern state" Ireland is now has equality on the face, women still struggle in daily life with issues such as the male domination of many industries, the persistence of sexual stereotyping and the lack of progress on matters such as abortion and child care. This essay attempts to describe the development of the feminist movement in Ireland and discuss the peculiarities of the movement as opposed to those in other states, taking into account the Church, the nationalist movement and the male-dominated governments.
Women in early Irish society had many of the rights that feminists have fought for in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The original patriarchal law evolved and changed, so that women held an equal role to men in many ways. (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 1) The adoption of Christianity in Ireland had little impact on this Brehon Law, and the two existed side by side. However, on the Norman invasion, the Irish customs became diluted with those of the English, and the subsequent "imposition of English law on Ireland in the seventeenth century" (ibid; 11), Irish women lost their equal status. As the Church in Rome gained power and became less liberal, Christianity, combined with English law, became the dominant force in Ireland. As a result, according to Donnacha Ó Corráin in his essay "Women in Early Irish Society" (ibid), "in its attitude to women and their place in society - as in its attitude to many other matters - modern Ireland enjoys no continuity with its Gaelic past."
In the 1800s, the women's movement began in Ireland, as it did all over Western Europe. Irish feminism was naturally associated with British feminism, as both groups were looking for reforms from the same centre - Westminster. Before 1900, the feminists focused on issues such as:
attaining equal educational rights for girls, legal protection for married women regarding property and children, and a broadening of employment opportunities for single women. Political equality and more particularly, the parliamentary vote for women remained an ideal for most activists. (Cullen Owens 2001; 9)
Successes in these areas were brought about in the 1870s and 1880s in acts such as the Intermediate Act, opening higher education to girls (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 47), and a series of Acts between 1970 and 1882 which gave property ownership rights to married women. The middle- and upper-class women who supported the movement at the time seemed to win both educational and legal equality; it was political equality that was yet to be won. (Cullen Owens 2001; 9) In the 1900s, this issue came to the forefront and the women's suffrage movement reached prominence. When it came to this political equality, Irish suffragettes faced some extra problems the British ones did not have to deal with.
Only one issue mattered to Irish politicians in the first two decades of the new century: "Ireland's domination by Britain and whether or not to fight for independence." (Smyth 1993; 20) Women had difficulty in deciding whether they should fight within their party (home rule or unionist) so that votes for women would be included in a subsequent constitution or fight for their party so that they would be repaid with the vote. Women tried both these approaches. More again tried another, refusing to support any particular side, fighting solely for suffrage. (ibid; 22) These women, with the ...
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Only one issue mattered to Irish politicians in the first two decades of the new century: "Ireland's domination by Britain and whether or not to fight for independence." (Smyth 1993; 20) Women had difficulty in deciding whether they should fight within their party (home rule or unionist) so that votes for women would be included in a subsequent constitution or fight for their party so that they would be repaid with the vote. Women tried both these approaches. More again tried another, refusing to support any particular side, fighting solely for suffrage. (ibid; 22) These women, with the first group, were soundly criticised by nationalists for "seeking the vote from an alien government" while some Home Rule Supporters were afraid of "jeopardising the passage of such a bill." (Cullen Owens 2001; 13)
Liberal leader Gladstone's son announced his decision to support home rule in 1885. In the general elections of 1910, the Irish party was left holding the balance of power between the Liberals and Conservatives. As a result they could pressurize the Liberals to continue their support of Home Rule in return for their support in parliament. (Smyth 1993; 21) However, the new leader of the Liberal party, Asquith was vehemently anti-suffrage. He threatened to resign if such a bill was passed. His resignation and the subsequent fall of the Liberals would have severe repercussions for the Home Rule party, putting an end to their expectations. (ibid; 23) While some Home Rulers in parliament were active supporters of the feminist movement - notably Tom Kettle and William Redmond - they still had to follow the official party line, which was to oppose it. Other party members were personally against it. John Dillon said that women's suffrage "will, I believe, be the ruin of western civilisation. It will destroy the home [and] challenge the headship of man, laid down by God." (cited in Cullen Owens 2001; 18) The leader of the party, John Redmond was also against the feminist cause. Firstly, he was fearful that supporting the movement would severely antagonise Asquith and ruin the chances of a Home Rule Bill. (Cullen Owens 2001; 18) He was also afraid that such a franchise reform would result in the redistribution of seats. (ibid; 27) He explained in April 1911, "he was against votes for women as it would increase the power of the clergy" and, as he explained to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, result in "a massive Conservative vote". (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 49) Sinn Féin were more sympathetic to the movement as a whole, but stayed with the opinion that "women would have the vote from an Irish parliament but should not go seeking it from a British one." (ibid; 49) When eventually the terms of the Home Rule Bill were decided in 1912, by the Liberal Government and the Irish Party, "they were terms that completely excluded women, denying them citizenship." (Smyth 1993; 30) The previously peaceful suffragettes in the Irish Women's Franchise League turned to militant action. Arrests increased and "in all, there were thirty six convictions between 1912 and the outbreak of war." (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 50)
By 1915, the feminist organisations had given away to Cumann na mBan, as the threat of partition made total independence the top priority. The Home Rule Movement fell and Sinn Féin became the dominant power in Ireland. The suffrage movement was shelved as nationalism surged and the women accepted that they "could only be emancipated after the nationalist issue was resolved." (Smyth 1993; 40) In theory, Cumann na mBan was equal to the men's organisation, but in reality, they were "regarded as subordinates and excluded from the decision-making process." (ibid; 39) However, when the Proclamation of Independence was read out at the GPO during the Easter Rising, it confirmed that:
The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens. (Luby 2003)
Finally it was established that women would have an equal place in the new state. Britain gave women over thirty the vote in 1918, and Cumann na mBan President, Countess Markievicz became the first woman elected to Westminster, although she could not take her seat under the Sinn Féin policy. (Smyth 1993; 41) After the Treaty elections, the new Irish government gave the vote to women over twenty one. Six women took their places in the first Dáil, however, all these women "were relatives of men executed in 1916, or killed in the Anglo-Irish war." (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 55) According to MacCurtain, this tradition has continued in Ireland, "women in post-revolutionary Ireland did not make the political traditions; they inherited them from fathers, husbands and brothers." (ibid; 55) Although achieving the vote and equal citizenship was a triumph for the feminists in Ireland, it was a hollow victory. As described by Margaret Ward (in Smyth 1993; 42):
This was in fact the last piece of progressive legislation concerning women that would be passed until a new generation of Irish feminist began raising insistent voices fifty years later.
The Irish Free State was firmly established as a Catholic patriarchal society under the guise of equality. DeValera's vision of "a land... bright with cosy homesteads... joyous... with the laughter of comely maidens... the home of a people living the life that God desires a man to live" (Moynihan 1980; 466) showed the agrarian, spiritual utopia that he hoped Ireland would become. The 1937 Constitution - Bunreacht na hEireann - was drawn up under the guidance of the church leaders and without the consultation of any women. This is made especially clear in the traditionalist and sexist Article 41.2, "which can be seen as an implicit denial of freedom of choice to women in personal matters." (Smyth 1993; 50) Article 45.4 seeks to exclude women from jobs deemed "unsuited".
Article 41 2.1 In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.
Article 41 2.2 The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.
Article 45 4.2 The State shall endeavour to ensure that the strength and health of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children shall not be abused and that citizens shall not be forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their sex, age or strength. (Lewis 1993; 74, 75)
Although these articles were protested against and opposed, DeValera refused to remove them. (Smyth 1993; 46) They remain in the Constitution today. Under this new Catholic-dominated society - the same church that had condemned the suffragettes for being "incompatible with the Catholic ideal of the unity of domestic life" (ibid; 46) - women were marginalized and this was underpinned and supported by law and constitution.
Women were forbidden to work in the civil service, local authority and in schools after marriage. This eliminated their promotion prospects and even damaged their hopes of ever being given a job, as they would be obstructing the way a man who would not have to quit after marriage. (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 76) Although this ban did exist in other countries, it lasted much longer in Ireland. In the UK, it was lifted in 1946, in Australia, it was lifted in 1966. (Sawer 1996) In Ireland it was in existence until the 1970s. (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 79) Catholic law controlled state law. Divorce, abortion and contraception were also constitutionally forbidden. The Criminal Law Amendment in 1935 stated that:
It shall not be lawful for any person to sell, or expose, offer, advertise or keep for sale, or to import or to attempt to import into Saorstát Eireann for sale, any contraceptive. (Lewis 1993; 75)
The Censorship of Publications Acts in 1929 and 1946 reinforced this Act, providing for a "mandatory ban on books or periodicals advocating the unnatural prevention of conception." (MacCurtain and Ó Corráin 1978; 62) These laws were protested against as a violation of a woman's right to control her fertility, and the illegal import of contraception was common. (Tovey and Share 2000; 226) Although France, Spain and Italy had comparable laws, theirs were lifted much earlier. It was only in 1994 that all restrictions on contraception were lifted in Ireland. In accordance with Catholic teaching, abortion is still prohibited in Ireland. However, various amendments have made information on abortion in other countries permissible and give women the right to travel for an abortion. (Tovey and Share 2000; 226)
Divorce was illegal in Ireland until 1995. Before then, it was constitutionally banned. A couple could legally separate, but not remarry. However, Irish citizens could obtain a divorce if the person filing it was resident in a state which did allow divorce. (Council for the Status of Women 1981; 82) This law was biased unfairly against women. In Irish law, a woman automatically took the domicile of her husband - i.e. wherever he was in residence, legally she was too, even if they were in different countries. (ibid; 72) Therefore, it was much easier for a man to obtain a divorce than a woman.
It was only when Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973 that the aforementioned reforms on behalf of women began. (Lewis 1993; 72) It was a "modernizing influence" according to Tovey and Share (2000; 409)
European Community membership provided the occasion for women to begin to claim rights as part of a wider community and to begin to challenge their thinking behind many of the normative assumptions which had dominated Irish social policy concerning family, motherhood and household. (Lewis 1993; 72)
Ireland did, however, manage to resist the EU's "modernizing influence" when it came to divorce until quite recently, and when it comes to abortion to this day.
In some ways, Ireland remains a Catholic country, and although women have achieved substantial equality, the feminist movement still have issues to contend with. However, now, due to the integration of Ireland into Europe, the separation of church and state, and the decrease in the importance of radical nationalism, the voice of the feminists is being heard. Ireland has had two female Presidents, some very prominent female politicians and female rights are being upheld more and more. (Tovey and Share 2000; 188) Only recently was the first conviction of a man for a rape within a marriage. (Irish Examiner, Saturday, October 26, 2002) Ireland still has some way to go to catch up with other countries, particularly the Northern welfare states of Norway and Sweden. Nonetheless, a precedent has now been set and it has become easier and more acceptable to fight for equality. As the suffragette Louie Bennett said in 1955:
Despite the progress we have made, women must still unfortunately fight to hold their corner. They must organise with women all over the world. That is their weapon. That is their strength. (Cullen Owens 2001; 9)
This is still the case in 2003. Most women nowadays do not even realise the influence the women's movements made on their lives, both at the turn of the century and the contemporary movement from the 1960s on. However, it has been a great instrument of change and has shaped the lives of women in Ireland to the way they are today, to a greater degree of freedom and equality than their predecessors would have deemed possible.
Bibliography
Books
. COUNCIL FOR THE STATUS OF WOMEN. 1981. Irish Women Speak Out - A Plan of Action. Dublin: Co-Op Books Ltd.
2. CULLEN OWENS, R. 2001. Louie Bennett. Cork: Cork University Press.
3. LEWIS, J (ed.). 1993. Women and Social Policies in Europe. England: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
4. MACCURTAIN, M and Ó CORRÁIN, D (ed.). 1978. Women in Irish Society - the historical dimension. Dublin: Arlen House Ltd.
5. MOYNIHAN, M (ed). 1980. Speeches and Statements by Eamon de Valera 1917-1973. New York : St. Martin's Press.
6. TOVEY, H. and SHARE, P. 2000. A Sociology of Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
7. SMYTH, A (ed.). 1993. Irish Women's Studies Reader. Dublin: Attic Press.
Websites
. LUBY, D. 2003. Irish Declaration of Independence [online]. Ireland on the Net. Available from: - http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/proclaim.htm
2. SAWER, M. 1996. A Removal of the Commonwealth Marriage Bar [online]. Women's Electoral Lobby.
Available from: - http://www.wel.org.au/issues/work/Marriage_Bar.pdf
