Varadkar concedes defeat in Ireland’s referendum on family, women’s roles
Al Jazeera
The Irish PM had called the referendum a chance to do away with ‘very old-fashioned, very sexist language about women’.
A dual referendum in the Republic of Ireland on redefining family and women’s roles in the constitution has been defeated, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.
The government supported the proposed changes, which would have widened the definition of the family and clarified the duties of women in society.
Varadkar had described Friday’s polls, which deliberately fell on International Women’s Day, as a chance to do away with “very old-fashioned, very sexist language about women”.
He said the government would accept the results.
“I think it’s clear at this stage that the family amendment and the care amendment referendums have been defeated – defeated comprehensively on a respectable turnout,” Varadkar said at a press conference in Dublin on Saturday.
