Two years ago, the same political parties who are inexplicably still in government, put a question by referendum to the people, wholly confident of its passing in the way that only those living in a publicly-funded bubble can be.
In a campaign dripping with condescension, they explained to us dim-wits that we needed to get references to mothers out of the Irish constitution, and not to be worrying our little heads about what that might mean because they’d sort all that out for us while we trotted off to our windowless cubicles, did what we were told, and paid our taxes.
What they didn’t realise what that vast swathes of women – smart, articulate, and informed – were sick to the back teeth of the open contempt the state and the establishment has long shown for the absolutely critical and essential role of mothers.
Back came a landslide 74% NO vote: a mighty roar from the women and mothers of Ireland who told the self-righteous, virtue-signalling, establishment stooges where they could stick their progressive, transgressive twaddle. It was an emphatic, historic win: ordinary women and men facing down the whole establishment machine and demanding that we keep the constitutional provisions which protect the value of the work women do as mothers in the home.
The establishment was stunned – for a while. Even the godawful National Women’s Council, who can’t tell you what a woman is but get millions in funding to represent us anyway, were temporarily silenced by the sheer size of the rejection.
But not to worry, they are all back to share their brand-new take on how to waste your taxes and mine: waging a war on trad wives. Here’s how Newstalk reported on the new campaign:
“Tradwife” influencers and other online trends seen as pressuring women into particular care roles are to be challenged as part of a Government-funded awareness campaign.
Tradwife influencers have grown in popularity in recent years and often promote traditional gender roles for women as homemakers and carers.
Nara Smith, a tradwife influencer with 4.9 million followers on Instagram alone, shares content of her making bread, looking after kids and gardening.
Gosh, Nara Smith, what a traitor to womankind you are! Making bread, and looking after your own kids. How could she betray the women’s struggle in this way, and look so good while conforming to patriarchal norms and dragging us all back to the oppressive past instead of working for the Man – who of course isn’t part of the patriarchy but is seeking instead to allow women to flourish by running us into the ground with exhaustion and making us miss out on precious, irreplaceable time with our small children.
The other content creator labelled ‘trad wife’ that liberals seems to hate is the wildly popular Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm, who is endlessly criticised for being a mother to 8 gorgeous children, running a business, and, one suspects, for being too good-looking.
It’s all such unmitigated bullshit, isn’t it? Apologies for the language, but I have just lost all patience in this regard.
Why would it diminish women to make bread, or to like cooking, or to be full-time mothers, or to love caring for our own babies? Why have I been forced to listen to this dross all of my life from a tiny handful of mostly privileged, taxpayer-funded twats who try to undermine our very natural desire to be mothers and homemakers? None of that means that men can’t also be great dads and also work in the home, of course they can. But the endless belittling of women who don’t snap back into the workforce immediately after birth is infuriating.
More from Newstalk: Ellen Coyne, political correspondent with the Irish Times, says the government is trying to “change the outlook and beliefs of the youth of the entire nation”. Are they now? Who asked them to do that? Not me, and probably not the 74% of people who voted NO in 2024.
“That this idea of a woman’s place only being in the home was something that was kind of resigned to the past, but that doesn’t seem to be the case based on online trends.”
“The government’s concern seems to come from [the fact that] they are worried that this content will prevent women from pursuing particular career paths and economic opportunities.
“So it seems that their worry is that this could be something that could suppress or repress female participation in the workforce.”
Valuing the work that mothers do isn’t the same as saying that a woman’s place is “only” in the home. But we have been here before: with a Fianna Fáil-led government that penalised families where one parent stayed home to raise the kids, because choice is only upheld when it comes to doing what that government thinks is best for the economy, though they were as stupid and short-sighted as ever in that regard and are now helpless in the face of the impending economic doom caused by collapsing birth rates.
Mothers aren’t even mentioned
This absurd ‘war’ on trad wives’ is all part of a National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030 (launched by Minister Norma Foley) which is, we are told, dedicated to advancing gender equality. The word ‘mother’, by the way, isn’t mentioned once. It rarely is when it comes to any document from the National Women’s Council even though most women are mothers, and most women value being a mother over every other accomplishment in life, as heaps of surveys have shown.
Those survey results must fill a certain kind of feminist – the kind who have the government’s ear, and seemingly endless access to the public purse – with rage. I suspect that all the huffing and puffing about equality, and breaking glass ceilings, serves to mask the same authoritarian, domineering instinct which we are led to believe drives in the infamous patriarchy towards forcing women to conform.
The National Women’s Council et al, you see, only approve of women who fit neatly into what they dictate a woman should be. But while most women are naturally in favour of equality of opportunity and respect for women, they’d run a million miles from the kind of dogmatic feminists who want the government to take action against trad wives , and who, in the true fashion of highly intolerant liberals, insistent that only their narrow view of a woman’s worth can be tolerated.
The reaction online this week what you’d expect: ranging from incredulity to exasperation to defiance.
“So the same week the HSE has come out and said men are entitled to maternity leave after giving birth which is misinformation because men can’t get pregnant, our government has an issue with stay at home mothers who bake bread, I think our government and media need help,” said one woman. Exactly.
The funny thing is that when women are actually tough and independent but don’t toe the liberal party line, the establishment actively tries to diminish them and silence them, often using exactly the same tactics of demonetisation and exclusion they decry elsewhere. Just look at how they have treated women who speak out on trans issues, or on immigration, or who wanted to smash the barriers to independents becoming President. There was no concern that those women were being prevented from “pursuing opportunities”.
I’m writing this column on a platform that I co-founded, but I guarantee you that none of those with Approved Opinions are cheering on the fact that this breakthrough media company is representing and giving voice to women who are tired of being excluded and talked-down to by the establishment. And for years I baked bread (well, scones mostly) and cared for my girls. It was a privilege and a pleasure, and the best thing I ever did, so spare me your lectures please, because I don’t give a damn about the government-sponsored bully pulpit that tries to dictate to women.
One of the best thing about social media is that we can follow trad wives if we want too – and switch them off if we don’t, because we don’t need the approval of NWC or Minister Norma Foley, and if the National Strategy doesn’t approve of our choices they can just sod off. And we can bloody well chose to be trad wives if we want to.