Debate contribution: International Women’s Day 2025

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 4 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

4 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

International Women’s Day 2025

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4833617

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I extend solidarity to all women for International Women's Day, and I commend the work of the Women's Caucus and the Chair for moving this important motion. International Women's Day has deep socialist, feminist and radical roots that should not be forgotten. It was first celebrated in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America to mark the New York garment workers' strike — a women's strike — the year before. Of course, women played a role in Petrograd a few years later, in 1917, demanding peace and bread — such a moderate demand but so relevant today with the way the world is going — leading an anti-war movement and toppling a tsar whose family had been in power for hundreds of years. Of course, we must not forget the role of women on this island 100 years and longer ago who took up the fight for rights of land, rights in the workplace and so on. Women won freedoms in many countries, as I mentioned, before so-called capitalist countries allowed women the right to vote, equal pay, equal work, divorce, free nurseries and abortion rights. The theme of this year's International Women's Day, as has been said, is "Accelerate action". The Executive's work on women's liberation could be described as the polar opposite. To take one example, the North is experiencing an epidemic of gender-based violence, as we have heard, with 25 women disgracefully killed since 2020. Education and prevention are obviously crucial to ending gender-based violence; that is what is required. That requires political will and investment that the Executive seem fundamentally incapable of allocating. It is also worth thinking about what kind of change we need. Better representation of women in positions of leadership is obviously important and valuable, but, unless feminism improves the everyday lives of all women, it will be worth nothing to many women, most women, all women. Too often, conversations about sexual assault and harassment and gender-based violence gloss over the wider context. To make it easier for women to leave toxic workplaces and abusive relationships, we need transformative changes to our current economic and political systems. We need a strong welfare state. It defies belief that women still cannot get financial support to leave abusive homes or abusive relationships. We need strong trade unions with women at their heart in the majority of workplaces. We need fair pay, universal free childcare, accessible healthcare and safe, secure and affordable housing. We also need to eradicate poverty and exploitation. There is still no anti-poverty strategy, and women bear the brunt of poverty and caring responsibilities. Gender inequality will always exist under capitalism. We should also recognise that sexism is propped up by a toxic culture of misogyny that should be called out. We need to dismantle that culture and use every opportunity to challenge deep-rooted beliefs and attitudes that characterise women as inferior. Those beliefs and attitudes are not outdated, unfortunately; nor are they ideas that died out with previous generations. They persist in a different and, in some ways, more aggressive, well-funded form. Young men are falling prey to online right-wing agitators — occasionally, we hear similar arguments in the House — who spew regressive and reactionary ideas about lots of people but especially women, saying that they belong in the home and that women's bodies are the personal property of men: Trump and Tate, to name but two. In reality, women have been and always will be at the forefront of the biggest struggles for change in our times. In recent years, it has been women who have been leading strikes in health and education and many other sectors. Women are also leading the Palestine solidarity movement. Mothers Against Genocide is just one example of that. It is not enough in my view and in my party's view to settle for better representation alone and for empty corporate slogans. That will not achieve women's liberation. We need to unpick the foundations of women's oppression and fight for a future without war, poverty, inequality and exploitation, just as those women did over 100 years ago.

682 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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