OPINION: ‘A country that values care must support paid family leave’ - Kilkenny senator
If we are serious about equality, we must recognise care as essential work, writes Senator Patricia Stephenson
This International Women’s Day, we will rightly celebrate the women in our communities, whether in business, in public life, in sport, culture, or in the home.
However, if we are honest, real gender equality is still constrained by one persistent factor: care. This work remains disproportionately carried out by women. This then shapes career choices, limits earning potential, widens pension gaps, and too often forces impossible trade-offs between family and financial security.
A report published last year by ActionAid and the National Women’s Council highlighted that women do twice as much unpaid care work than men. About 98% of full-time carers are women.
The disproportionate responsibility of care work on women has a direct consequence on their economic equality because they are less likely to have a job, work full time or have access to higher paid employment.
PREDICTABLE OUTCOME
This unfortunately is the predictable outcome of a system that treats childcare as a private burden rather than essential public infrastructure and crucially a system which does not value the care provided by women.
We need a revaluing of care by the State. We need the Government to see that the unpaid labour of women, whether that’s for children or older people, is a contribution to our society.
The first year of a child’s life is so important, and yet many mothers face financial pressure to return to work before they are ready or absorb a steep drop in income if they stay at home.
The National Women’s Council is calling for an income-linked support for the first year of a child’s life which would recognise that caring for a baby is socially valuable work.
It would allow families real choice and allow mothers to take time at home. When care is unpaid or poorly supported, it is women who bear the long-term economic cost.
Currently Ireland is the only country in the EU that does not link family leave benefits to income, instead a very low flat rate is used. Many countries do much better, including Portugal, Bulgaria Sweden and Germany , whilst we leave the navigating of a system that is limited and having to navigate the very high childcare costs. The Social Democrats have been calling for PáistíCare, a public model of childcare designed to make fees affordable and services sustainable and pay staff properly.
The principle is simple; early years education should be treated like primary education, publicly planned, properly funded and accessible to all. This benefits not only the child, but the wider family and in particular ensures that women can remain at work should they wish.
Crucially, this conversation must also include the workers who keep the system running. The vast majority of early years educators are women.
Many are highly qualified, deeply committed and doing emotionally demanding work, yet they are among the lowest paid in our education system. A significant number work part-time, turnover is high, not because they lack dedication, but because they cannot afford to stay.
We cannot continue to expect professional standards while tolerating poverty-level pay. A public childcare model must mean decent wages, secure hours, and career pathways. Quality of care for children depends on stability for staff.
On International Women’s Day it is worth asking what equality looks like in everyday life, it cannot simply be about representation, it must be about the very systems that shape women’s lives and that includes how we support families when children are young.
A childcare and family leave system that leaves such a gap between maternity pay ending a child starting school is not gender neutral. If Ireland is serious about equality, we must recognise care as essential work.