In supporting the proposed referendum, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “For too long, women and girls have carried a disproportionate share of caring responsibilities, been discriminated against at home and in the workplace, objectified or lived in fear of domestic or gender-based violence.”

It’s interesting to see some of those comments in light of International Women’s Day, which is sometimes described as being hijacked by large corporations to improve their own reputations through genderwashing.

The irony is that the IWD concept was first mooted over a century ago as improved conditions for working women were being sought.  

At the International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1910, delegates proposed an International Women’s Day to be held every year; they also sought female suffrage, rights for working women, support for mothers, the provision of nurseries, and free school meals.

It’s striking to see such practical goals stated as aspirations over 100 years ago. Because, despite the proposed referendum and International Women’s Day, many Irish women would no doubt describe some of those 1910 aspirations as being as distant in the 21st century as they were before the First World War.

Affordable childcare and other supports for working mothers would be immeasurably beneficial for a large cohort of the Irish population. And would be beneficial for longer than one day a year.