The Constitutional Convention has returned its recommendations to government in relation to the role of women. It has recommended that article 41.2 which specifies the role of women in the home should be changed to a gender-neutral document to include other carers in the home and beyond the home.

However a Constitutional provision to enhance participation in public life and in politics has been narrowly defeated.

The group have recommended that the government take more action in this area.

The government now have 4 months in which they must hold a full Dáil debate to address these issues.

88% of the Convention called for the clause to be changed while 11% believed it should be left as it is. That same number (88%) want to see the clause modified, as opposed to deleted from the Constitution.

A majority of 98% say it should be made gender-neutral to include other carers in the home. While there was a narrower majority (62%) in favour of the clause being amended to include carers beyond the home.

Women in public life & politics

The second topic for discussion was the issue of encouraging greater participation of women in public life and increasing the participation of women in politics. 4 questions were posed on this, with 62% voting in favour of amending the Constitution to include an explicit provision on gender equality.

A final question on whether to amend the text of the entire Constitution to include 'genderinclusive' language also received widespread support with 89% voting in favour of this.

The Convention says "It is clear that Convention members favoured non-constitutional routes to encouraging the greater participation of women...An overwhelming majority of the members (97%) supported the motion that there should be 'more government action' in this area".