Over 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for the redfratfing of legislation which will extend maternity entitlements to transgender men in Ireland.
The approved draft of the new Work-Life Balance and Miscellaneous provisions Bill will remove the words ‘woman’, ‘female’, ‘mother’ and ‘girl’ in all of the clauses that relate to maternity protections. The bill also erases the words ‘she’ and ‘her’ in reference to being female and states that transgender men can breastfeed.
The petition addressed to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, posted to the platform CitizenGo, expresses concern with regards to the Bill – stating that while the Bill is supposed to be inclusive, it “effectively erases” 50% of the population.
The stated objective of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 is to “increase the participation of women in the labour market and the take-up of family related leave and flexible working arrangements” – alongside the encouragement of a “more equal sharing” of family-related leave between men and women.
The Bill, which is now making its journey through Ireland’s two legislative houses, is being enacted to transpose the EU Work-life Balance Directive by the deadline of 2 August 2022 (yesterday), which became European Union law back in 2019 – meaning it must be adopted by member states. The Directive, according to the EU, aims to improve families’ access to family leave as well as flexible working arrangements.
However, concern has been expressed that all references to women and mothers are being “erased” from the new legal provisions concerning rights to maternity leave and breastfeeding – with serious implications for employers in Ireland.
Opponents of the Bill have warned that the approved draft of the new bill will directly remove the words ‘female’, ‘woman’, ‘mother’ and ‘girl’ in all of the clauses that relate to maternity protections – meaning that if it is passed into law, it will remove all references to women from Irish maternity laws.
The bill also removes the words ‘she’ and ‘her’ in reference to being female, and states that men can breastfeed, according to those behind the petition which has gained traction in recent weeks.
“Maternity laws should be there to protect pregnant women – not deny their existence!” the authors of the petition state.
“This bill is supposed to be inclusive, yet effectively erases 50% of the population,” the campaign states, adding that the draft legislation is also scientifically flawed.
It continues: “It is also scientifically inaccurate. Only women have wombs where their children are conceived and nourished and only women have breasts that produce milk to feed their babies. The law must reflect reality and not an minority ideological belief.
“Replacing the words ‘women’ and ‘mother’ with ‘person’ is offensive, de-humanising and removes an important part of women’s identity”.
The government approved the drafting of the Bill earlier this year. In April, the General Scheme of the Bill was brought to Cabinet by Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman before it passed through both houses of the Oireachtas last month.
The report on pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Bill, published in June, acknowledged a “polarized” response from submissions the Committee received on the Bill:
“The majority of submissions the Committee received on this Bill were quite polarized. On the one hand, the National Women’s Council, One Family, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the recruitment and training company ‘ICE Group’ and Dr Stephan Köppe, an expert in social policy, called for more progressive policies than the current draft of the General Scheme offers. On the other hand, IBEC submitted that:
“It is vital that the transposition exercise goes no further than necessary in transposing the minimum requirements of the Directive.”
The Committee also stressed the importance to ensure that “flexible working is available to all workers”, stating that there is an “existing gender equality” in caring and parenting:
“When flexible work is not shared between men and women or when, by virtue of their design, interventions are imbalanced, this has the potential to reproduce existing caring and employment inequalities and reinforce gender stereotypes and differences between work and care”.
The National Women’s Council in its submission, said:
“Where women are more likely to avail of flexible work options, we risk further embedding a male-breadwinner model”.
New rights under the draft legislation include an extension of maternity leave entitlenments to transgender men. The General Scheme proposes to introduce the right for a transgender male who has, in accordance with the Gender Recognition Act 2015, obtained a gender recognition certificate and “subsequently becomes pregnant, to fall within the scope of the Maternity Protection Act 1994.”
The legislation also includes the right to an extended period of breastfeeding – not only for biological women but those who are biologically male and identify as female. Under the legislation, the Maternity and Adoptive Leave Protection Acts would be amended to increase the number of weeks from 26 to 104 weeks during which mothers are entitled to take paid time off work or have reduced working hours for breastfeeding purposes.
The petition campaign further adds: “It is an outrage that such a radical piece of legislation is being pushed through the Oireachtas without first consulting with the Republic’s women, whom it is supposed to represent and protect.
“Please redraft the bill before allowing it to proceed further.”