Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the Taoiseach gave us an insight into his thinking about care and the role of the family. When speaking about the demand from people for a right to care and supports from the State, the Taoiseach explained his position that State support for care is a last resort. He said, "I do not actually think that is the State's responsibility, to be honest. I do think that is very much a family responsibility". Saying that you are happy caring responsibilities are on the shoulders of your family when you are wealthy is one thing. For families who are on low incomes, or even middle incomes, putting care onto the family means hardship and difficulties. In reality, this results in caring work being put onto the shoulders of women. It is an ideology used to justify low pay and the undervaluing of feminised professions. The gender pay gap officially stands at 9.6% according to the Central Statistics Office. In international terms, 12.5 billion hours of care work are carried out by women and girls every day. If paid at a minimum wage rate, this would amount to $10.8 trillion, three times the worth of the global tech industry.

Feminism needs to be a socialist feminism. It needs to challenge patriarchal ideas that marry well with neoliberalism and skeleton state supports and services. We need to challenge the logic of capitalism, which profits from the unpaid care work of women. A key issue in this ideology is the undervaluing of care work. Those who are working providing care are lower paid, undervalued and work in conditions of continual stress. They are childcare workers, home helps, home care assistants, nurses and midwives. If the Government were serious about supporting women it would back up these workers. An example of how it is not doing this is evident in its unwillingness to extend the arrangements for special leave with pay to those who have contracted long Covid. Among these are more than 150 nurses who are overwhelmingly women. They are workers who were on the front lines during Covid, often without PPE. I spoke to one such nurse in my own constituency who has suffered from fatigue, breathlessness, headaches, heart, lung and stomach issues. The scheme that gives her some financial stability is disgracefully being withdrawn at the end of the month. Her income will be halved by the time her sick pay runs out at the start of the summer - another example of the ideology of devaluing care work and feminised professions.

I salute women, non-binary and trans people who are fighting back against inequality, sexism, transphobia and homophobia. I call on people to join Rosa's International Women's Day protest in Dublin this Saturday, 9 March, at 12 noon at the Spire.

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