IMF's suggestion of a "man tax" (or lower taxes for women)

Thaedydal wrote: »

They have it named wrong, it should be stay at home parent/homemaker back to work tax break and it should be for parents of either gender, it's sloppy calling it a woman's back to work tax.

Ward explains that women graduates from university issued a protest to de Valera's document. Women such as Mary Hayden, Agnes O' Farrelly, Mary Macken, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, and Mary Kettle refused his backward and regressive description of womanhood along with Article 45 which stated that women and children should be kept from work which they were unsuited for, leading feminists to predict its utility as an instrument in discrimination.

de Valera ignored women, just as he always had.

It's worth noting that one of the most significant dissenting groups consisted of Irish feminists who strongly objected to women's domestic roles as wife and mother being formally codified and inscribed into the Constitution. Margaret Ward, a brilliant historian, explains de Valera's limited understanding of women and his commitment to men's gender privilege in Irish civic affairs:


"The initial impetus behind the proposed constitution was the necessity of establishing the sovereign independence of Ireland, of tearing away the last remnant of the 1922 Treaty Constitution. But de Valera's new constitution was far removed from the liberal-democratic ethos of the 1922 document, being imbued with all the reactionary values of Catholic social teaching, particularly in its insistence upon the primacy of women's role within the family. It echoed many Papal encyclicals, all of which de Valera had studied in detail as he formulated what was to be the climax of his political career. He had refused to let women into Boland's Mill in 1916 and he had disregarded the contribution made by women during the Civil War, finding women activists an anomaly he preferred to ignore in favour of a vision of an Ireland 'whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose villages would be joyous with the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths, the laughter of comely maidens.' Now as President, he took the opportunity to ensure that women, whether they liked it or not, would give priority to their duties as wives and mothers. He had never wanted women in the public sphere and was going to enshrine these prejudices within the constitution. His attitudes were so well known that no one was taken in by his protestations of concern for women's well-being." Unmanageable Revolutionaries 237-8.

For example, in Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill's "Selected Essays" she discloses that her mother was a doctor who had to abandon her practice upon marriage and lived through a deep depression that lasted 15 years at the loss of her professional livelihood. Article 41 made discrimination against women the norm for most of the twentieth century.

The application process for state crèches should start in the fourth month of pregnancy when an interview is organised to discuss how many days a week the child with attend and the date he or she will start at the crèche. Confirmation is sent in the seventh month of pregnancy. Every case is dealt with in chronological order.
The crèches are open throughout the year, usually from 7am to 6pm (depending on local working hours), except on weekends and national holidays. The cost varies, according to the family income bracket. The price of private crèches, however, is freely set by the owners.
The financial contribution for official crèches in the Flemish system cost between July 2005 and June 2006 between EUR 1.31 and EUR 23.31 per day per child, depending on the net joint income of the married, co-habiting or single parent household. There is a tax deduction of up to EUR 11.20 per day.
In the French-speaking system costs range from EUR 1.99 to EUR 28.04, depending on household income, but tax deductions of up to 70 percent are also available.
At official childcare centres there are also reductions granted to parents placing more than one child in the same crèche.
Several of the English speaking, international schools offer programmes for the pre-school age child, increasingly with an exposure to a second language. There are also privately run pre-schools similar to American nursery schools, but, as yet, the co-operative nursery school concept has not caught on in Belgium.
Full details on all areas of Belgium can be obtained from the organisations that supervise and set the national standards.
Office de la Naissance et de l'Enfance (O.N.E) (French)
Chaussée de Charleroi, 95
1060 Bruxelles
Ph: 02 542 1211
Fax: 02 542 1261
Email info@one.be
Online: www.one.be
http://www.expatica.com/be/essentials_moving_to/essentials/childcare-in-belgium-1445_8443.html