IT’S OFTEN HARD to feel much sympathy for politicians. With great pay, perks and pensions, it’s often seen as a cushy number. Along with a perception of a life of expenses, ribbon cutting, and long lunches, coupled with their ability to never answer a straight question when asked, it can leave those of us on the daily grind, reaching for the world’s smallest violin when they complain about their lot. Throw the government greenlighting the country’s most expensive bike shelter and security hut into the mix, and it can put the bar for compassion for our elected officials on the floor.
However, I often feel sympathy for Justice Minister Helen McEntee. And to be clear, this is not about her being grilled on her performance as Minister for Justice. We very much need to hold our public representatives to account and ask those tough, but fair questions, especially if their performance is not up to scratch. My thoughts on her performance aside, I can’t help but feel as the first woman in Cabinet to take maternity leave in 2021, she has had to justify her decision to do so time and time again.
Today on Morning Ireland Aine Lawlor asked her; “in your time as Minister for Justice, you took a lot of flak for taking maternity leave, did you ever regret that and do you want to see Ministers doing this in the future?”
It was an ill-phrased question to be sure, but the discussion around the criticism McEntee faced over her decision to take maternity leave in 2021 is hugely important. Would it be acceptable to ask another politician who took time off for chemotherapy if they regretted it? Would it be acceptable to ask politicians who took time off to care for a dying loved one if they regretted it? Of course, it wouldn’t so why is it acceptable to ask women in office if they regretted taking maternity leave?
“Welcome back, Sandra, did you regret taking your maternity leave then?”
It’s a question no woman should be asked, regardless of her profession or whether she was the first one to take it, as was the case with McEntee. No woman should be made to feel as though they have to question or justify their decision to take the time allocated to them to care for and bond with their baby. The same goes for dads and if we want to improve the levels of fathers taking their full paternity leave entitlements, these questions need to be a thing of the past.
Today too, the Dáil also lost a powerhouse with the passing of Mary O’Rourke. A giant of political life and a no-nonsense woman, when Mary started in the Dáil in 1982 women couldn’t have imagined taking maternity leave while serving in politics. It would have been a no-no.
TDs like Mary contributed to the conversation around better opportunities for women in politics, and any wins for women in the Dáil in 2024 have come on the back of those women. Although there is no formal law covering maternity leave, social attitudes have changed over time, making it possible now.
Maternity and paternity leave shouldn’t be viewed as some kind of six-month holiday or a way to dodge work or coast through corporate life. We routinely plan and allocate resources to ensure entitlements can be taken without causing issue in most other professions and this has to be the norm for political office as well.
It never ceases to amaze me when people view maternity leave as some kind of six-month holiday. It couldn’t be further from that. In reality, the time is spent caring for and bonding with your baby and everything that goes with that, plus for the mothers, it’s about recovering from the birth itself. It’s also a time when women have less money coming into them and often face mounting pressure about their return to work and the need for flexibility.
Maternity leave needs to be seen as a vital part of a baby’s life, and all of the knock-on benefits it has for us as a whole.
However, today isn’t the first time McEntee has been questioned over her decision to take maternity leave. It has in fact been the subject of rumblings, both audible and those less so, for some time. The Minster herself referenced unattributed remarks and rumours, those in the vein of “she went on maternity leave to avoid doing work” or she’s “off having babies” while other ministers “get things done” when she spoke to the Irish Times last year.
On Morning Ireland today, she was quick to affirm she had no regrets over taking her maternity leave. “Absolutely not, I will never regret the time I spent at home with my children,” replied McEntee. “The option should be there, and it should never be a deterrent for anybody going into any job, whether it’s politics or otherwise”.
“It’s really important that people and mothers have the ability if they want to spend that time with their children and I think it’s really important that we allow for that to become the norm and that it’s not criticised,” she explained.
It’s hard to believe that in 2024 these are the things women must contend with, but amazingly negative attitudes around maternity leave persist. In the UK, comments by the Tory leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch referring to maternity pay as ‘excessive,’ do nothing to further the cause to remove the stigma around what should be viewed as a basic necessity, not a jolly.
And what message does it send to the next generation of women who may want to enter politics? It’s already an off-putting career path as it is.
People in balaclavas outside politicians’ homes, death threats, bomb threats, bags of cow dung being thrown, and, in the UK, politicians have even been murdered in their jobs.
Despite the financial remuneration, it’s not a job I’d ever put myself forward for even if I did think I could make a difference in my community, the personal cost is just too high. For women, that cost can often be even more intense. Unsociable working hours, make it hard to juggle family commitments, and this persistent negativity and silent judgment around maternity leave entitlements, simply compounds it.
We’ve got to do better if we ever want to attract and retain more women in politics.
Niamh O’Reilly is a writer and journalist.
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