Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have enjoyed all of the contributions, including those I sat in for and those I heard on the television. I hope that everybody has an enjoyable day on Saturday, 8 March. I will keep my contribution simple and maybe go back to basics.

We should all be feminists because being a feminist means believing that women and men are equal and deserve equal rights. That phrase “We should all be feminists” is not entirely mine. I have plagiarised it as it is the title of an excellent first book by the Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In her book, she recommends that we must raise our daughters differently but we must also raise our sons differently, and, indeed, I commend Deputy Barry Ward on his contribution. If we do that, this will produce a fairer world. It will be a world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves.

I will give a small work example from my previous career as a county councillor. In the emergency accommodation figures for Meath County Council that we got each month, the highest category of those seeking emergency accommodation was those experiencing marital breakdown. If we crosscheck that with Accord research, the primary reasons are responsibility for household tasks and the division of that, responsibility for childcare and financial reasons. For all of those reasons, and how they are apportioned out, we should all be feminists. If we do that, we will have a fairer world. If we start very simply, start in the home and raise our daughters and sons differently, perhaps we will achieve equality.

See this speech in context