Ireland’s about to take women out of its Constitution

Irish voters are heading to the polls on International Women’s Day — Friday — to remove the words “woman” and “mother” from the Constitution.

Also up for vote: a measure that would widely expand the definition of “family.”

Two amendments are on the ballot: Article 39, on the family, and Article 40, on the role of women/mothers in society.

Article 39 would redefine the family to a grouping “founded on marriage,” as the Constitution now says, “or on other durable relationships.”

The proponents of the changes argue the current wording is exclusionary to single-parent and nonmarried households. 

“The relationship that exists between a child and their mother or father when they’re born, that’s the one-parent family,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said. “It’s committed, it’s caring, it’s long-lasting.”