Ann Graves (Dublin Fingal East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am honoured to speak here today to mark International Women's Day. As a life-long trade unionist and activist, I see a clear link between the struggle for women's rights and the struggle for workers' rights. International Women's Day grew out of the labour movement in the US and workers' struggle for better conditions. It was marked for the first time by the UN in 1975. In December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace, and so it began.

This year, the theme of International Women's Day is: "For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment". That is a powerful global message. This year's theme calls for action by us all to unlock equal rights, power and opportunities for all and a feminist future where nobody is left behind. Central to this vision is empowering the next generation - our youth, particularly young women and adolescent girls - as a catalyst for real and lasting change. Before 1995, only 12 countries had legal sanctions against domestic violence. Today, 1,583 legislative measures are in place across 193 countries, including 354 targeting domestic violence specifically. We have made good progress since 1908, but we have a long distance to go until we will have achieved full and total equality between men and women.

This Government may trumpet economic growth but women remain the largest group of people excluded from their fair share of benefits in our economy. A clear example of this is the gender pay gap, which is institutional sexism. It is unacceptable and needs to change. It will only change when the very systems that exclude working class women are fundamentally changed.

Every day in my constituency office in Swords, I meet women who are victims of abuse, mental and physical. With the housing crisis and lack of spaces in refuges, there is nowhere for women to go. Women flee the family home while the abuser gets to stay in the home. The woman gets punished twice, once by her abuser and again by the system. I am dealing with one woman who has sought a transfer because her abuser lives very close by. She sees him every day, which replays the horrors of her abuse. She has been told by her local council that he is innocent until the case is heard in court. This is just one of many such cases where women have nowhere to escape to. Other women who have been through the system say that men get a slap on the hand where they are left with physical and mental scars for the rest of their lives. Tackling domestic violence must become a priority for this Government.

Women are still not represented equally here in the Oireachtas or in local government and this situation has a real and immediate impact on women. With a growing representation of Sinn Féin TDs, we intend to keep raising the issues that deeply impact women.

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