Mary Hayden (1862-1942) :
Feminist

Joyce Padbury

Issue 390, vol.98, Summer 2009

Early in the 20^th century, feminists were campaigning for equal university admission for women, both Catholic and Protestant – through resolutions, petitions, published articles, letters to government figures, and appearances (as in the case of Hayden) before Royal Commissions. Finally in 1908 women were included on equal terms with men in the legislation that established the National University of Ireland. The paramount influence of mothers on their children was constantly stressed by Hayden, and, as a consequence, the importance of women’s education – so that their influence could be exercised with intelligence, knowledge and wisdom.

Mary Hayden next threw herself into the campaign for female suffrage (while objecting to any militant tactics).The final suffrage achievement in Ireland (the enfranchisement of all citizens over twenty-one) – conforming to the declaration on equality in the Easter Proclamation – was accomplished in the Free State Constitution of 1922. While the Dail was debating the Constitution text, Hayden pointed out that to confine the guarantee of women’s equality to political matters only (as proposed by the government) would set a precedent for the introduction of limitations in other areas of women’s activities; in the end, the disputed provision was entirely omitted.

Mary Hayden protested at the virtual exclusion of women from jury service (a right granted to them only in 1919). This too was the era when other countries besides Ireland had a bar on women in certain positions marrying : at a lively protest meeting Hayden declared that to impose the miseries of unemployment on women in order to provide work for men, would merely aggravate poverty and unemployment. And she drew public attention to the employment situation where the same training, qualifications, and duties were required of a woman applicant – but where the woman , if appointed, would receive a lower salary than a male candidate.

As President of the National University Women Graduates’ Association, Mary Hayden campaigned against certain proposed provisions of De Valera’s 1937 Constitution. Eventually, De Valera conceded prohibition of discrimination on grounds of gender in the provisions on citizenship and voting rights; but the three proposed Articles remained unaltered which women read as relegating them to a domestic role and excluding them from public life.

Joyce Padbury was on the staff of University College Dublin and is now writing a life of Mary Hayden.