The Constitutional Dilemma of Caring in Ireland: A Critical Discourse Analysis on the Political Framing of Unpaid Care Labour Against the Backdrop of the Fortieth Amendment of the Constitutional (Care) Bill 2023
(2025) SOLM12 20251Department of Sociology of Law
- Abstract
- For decades, Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution has been coupled with gender specific and sexist language that positions women as carers within the home. On International Women’s Day of 2024, the Irish Government sought to amend this Article through a national referendum. This thesis aims to critically examine the political discourse that took place during the timeframe of this referendum and analyse how this discourse shaped unpaid care work in Ireland. It also seeks to identify how this may have reinforced or transformed the unequal treatment of both caregivers and care receivers alike. This question was examined through a
theoretical framework that incorporated both feminist legal theory and Foucault's theory of governmentality.... (More) - For decades, Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution has been coupled with gender specific and sexist language that positions women as carers within the home. On International Women’s Day of 2024, the Irish Government sought to amend this Article through a national referendum. This thesis aims to critically examine the political discourse that took place during the timeframe of this referendum and analyse how this discourse shaped unpaid care work in Ireland. It also seeks to identify how this may have reinforced or transformed the unequal treatment of both caregivers and care receivers alike. This question was examined through a
theoretical framework that incorporated both feminist legal theory and Foucault's theory of governmentality. Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis was utilised to gain a deeper understanding of the discourse and answer the questions posed.
The results of this thesis demonstrate that while the discourse moved away from gender specific wording surrounding unpaid care work, disparities were reinforced when examining the data through a critical lens. Particularly, government attempts to situate unpaid care work as a family responsibility, while simultaneously negating the State as an equal provider of care, have the potential to reinforce gendered division within both the public and private spheres. This also obstructed freedom of choice by situating care receivers as subjects of care work and, more specifically, of family care. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9193900
- author
- Tapley, Maria Clare LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOLM12 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- critical discourse analysis, unpaid care work, feminist theory, Irish Constitution
- language
- English
- id
- 9193900
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-23 09:40:07
- date last changed
- 2025-06-23 09:40:07
@misc{9193900,
abstract = {{For decades, Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution has been coupled with gender specific and sexist language that positions women as carers within the home. On International Women’s Day of 2024, the Irish Government sought to amend this Article through a national referendum. This thesis aims to critically examine the political discourse that took place during the timeframe of this referendum and analyse how this discourse shaped unpaid care work in Ireland. It also seeks to identify how this may have reinforced or transformed the unequal treatment of both caregivers and care receivers alike. This question was examined through a
theoretical framework that incorporated both feminist legal theory and Foucault's theory of governmentality. Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis was utilised to gain a deeper understanding of the discourse and answer the questions posed.
The results of this thesis demonstrate that while the discourse moved away from gender specific wording surrounding unpaid care work, disparities were reinforced when examining the data through a critical lens. Particularly, government attempts to situate unpaid care work as a family responsibility, while simultaneously negating the State as an equal provider of care, have the potential to reinforce gendered division within both the public and private spheres. This also obstructed freedom of choice by situating care receivers as subjects of care work and, more specifically, of family care.}},
author = {{Tapley, Maria Clare}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Constitutional Dilemma of Caring in Ireland: A Critical Discourse Analysis on the Political Framing of Unpaid Care Labour Against the Backdrop of the Fortieth Amendment of the Constitutional (Care) Bill 2023}},
year = {{2025}},
}