Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They never have and they never will. They are just using it as another wedge issue to exploit and divide. I have spent many years on protests and campaigns, including campaigning for change within my own party with regard to reproductive rights and campaigning in the referendum but I do not remember meeting any of those individuals who are active on social media now. I do not remember them ever standing shoulder to shoulder with the women, demanding that we got equality or access to healthcare. They were not there because, as we know full well, if they had their way and if they succeeded in what they want to see for our society, they would have us still chained to the kitchen sink. I look forward with enthusiasm to the referendum about women's place in the home but it will be interesting to see what side they will take. We know that the far right would continue to lock up women for not conforming to their patriarchal view of how women should behave. They would have no problem in forcing us to carry unwanted pregnancies, even in the case of rape. They would have no problem with that because that is their track record. That is the side they have taken every time. The far right have no problem with criticising what we wear. They criticise the hijab, they criticise women if they do not wear enough clothes or if they wear too many clothes. Now they also want us to fear our transgender sisters. My message is that we need to resist the fearmongering. We are stronger together. Feminists know that, including the male feminists in our lives. We need to stand together and remember that we will not achieve anything if we divide. That is what the far right want to see us do.

The issues of climate justice and climate change are also related to women's rights and justice. As we know, it is women who are more likely to be impacted by climate change across the world. Women will become migrants due to climate change. In low- and middle-income countries, women are more likely to work in agriculture and are more likely to have to work harder to secure an income and resources for their families. Girls are also more likely to have to leave school to help their mothers with the increased burden of work. Additionally, we know that climate change is driving a lot of the conflicts across the world. While we are all focused on Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and that war is absolutely abhorrent, other conflicts are happening around the world and some of them are driven by climate change and the resultant competition for resources. It is time to accept that climate change is real and that we must consider its effects in our future policies. We must recognise that climate change is going to increase migration, exacerbate gender inequality and lead to more gender-based violence because of the conflicts that result from it. It is something that we need to be very conscious of and active on.

My main message for today, and I have steered well off the topic of innovation and technology, is one that should be echoed every year on International Women's Day. This day should be about the sisterhood and about us coming together and not allowing those who seek to divide us, to sow fear and pitch us against one another to succeed. We must come together and stand united because it is only through being united that we will effect the change that will make life better for all of the women in society.