What do we mean by bodily autonomy? And what does bodily autonomy mean for women in particular?

Abstract

Women's bodily autonomy has been contested through history and Ireland is a key territory in which this contest continues to be played out – a contest with implications at a global level. Our contemporary history is littered with legal, political, economic and social ways in which women's autonomy has been limited and restricted Despite the Proclamation of 1916 declaring equal citizenship and equal opportunities, in reality the new Irish Free State of 1922 saw the introduction of a battery of anti-women legislation, restricting rights and roles and aiming at confining women to the domestic sphere. Most women in Ireland could not sign contracts, own property, open bank accounts, access paid work in most areas of the economy, sit on juries or until the 1990s access contraception and divorce. Women were forced to resign from paid employment on marriage across the civil service, public sector, banks and insurance (a law introduced in 1932 and only removed in 1973 on joining the EEC – later the EU) (Connolly 2005; 2015).