Debate contribution: International Women’s Day 2026

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 3 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

3 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

International Women’s Day 2026

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5434942

Read the official Assembly record

Text

It is important to speak on the issue. The conversation should be and has been led by women — rightly so — but men have a stake in it and should be interested in standing alongside women and sisters in the fight for women's liberation. I will make a quick history point. The first international women's day — I may have said this last year — took place in New York in 1909 and was organised by the Socialist Party of America. The left movement — the socialist movement — has always been there in the fight for women's liberation, despite the different views on display today. As Members have said, it is International Women's Day this weekend. I think that it is important to talk about all women but particularly about the women in my West Belfast constituency, because their lives, their struggles and their resilience deserve some attention. West Belfast is one of the most deprived constituencies on these islands. Poverty runs deep and is very much a political issue. When poverty and deprivation take hold of a community, it is usually women who bear the heaviest burden. They are called the "shock absorbers of poverty". They often skip meals so that their children are fed, sit in a cold house so that the family can stay warm and balance impossible budgets. They do all of that without support from the Executive, who underfund the services on which they depend. The health inequalities are stark, as has been mentioned. Women in our most deprived areas face significantly worse outcomes in mental health, chronic illness and life expectancy than women in wealthier parts of this city, but, obviously, all women lose out. That is a direct result of decades of underinvestment in working-class communities. We are the only jurisdiction on these islands without a dedicated women's health strategy. As the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone and others said, it takes, on average, almost 10 years for a woman to be diagnosed with endometriosis. If that were an illness that affected men, things would undoubtedly move much more quickly. The Women's Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) research on health inequalities reports that many women feel unheard and dismissed by healthcare professionals.

We have heard that during other debates. Childcare is another scandal. The cost of childcare in the North remains amongst the highest across these islands. Women are locked out of work and education, because affordable childcare simply does not exist. That is structural inequality, and it demands a structural response that, unfortunately, is not found in the childcare strategy. Childcare should be free, publicly available and universally accessible for women. I want to mention the women's hostel in my constituency, Regina Coeli, which closed about four years ago. That was a vital refuge in West Belfast for some of the most vulnerable and deprived women who were seeking to escape from violence. There has been no replacement service in West Belfast, and that needs to be addressed. It is worth reminding ourselves that the far right and those who trumpet far right arguments do not stand up for women and want to divide people with a racist, anti-migrant or anti-other agenda. I want to finish by talking about women in the community in West Belfast. I pay tribute to all of them: those who are working; those who are not working; those in our schools; those in the Royal Victoria Hospital; and those in all childcare settings across the constituency. We had a Seachtain na Gaeilge event earlier. There would be no Irish language sector in West Belfast without the women in Bóthar Seoigh, Ionad na Fuiseoige, Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, Glór na Móna agus na Gaelscoileanna suas agus síos an bóthar.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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