DIRTY DISHES.. John O’Kane finishes a cup of tea at a recent event in Enniskillen
FORMER SDLP Councillor John O’Kane has denied that remarks he made at the final Fermanagh District Council meeting on Tuesday past, were sexist.
Mr O’Kane confirmed to this paper that he used the phrase ‘behind every good man there is a woman and behind every good woman there are dishes’, at the meeting.
However, speaking this week, Mr O’Kane denied that he was being sexist, adding that he was ‘not apologising for it’.
“It’s [the phrase] been used often about people, more to do with women in public life. When a man is out working or out – you’re depending on your wife or your partner to hold the fort at home.
“It was put in the context of: We were talking about the demands of pubic life that it makes on public representatives and the undue demands that it then puts on the wife or the partner who’s behind them holding the fort, rearing the family and so on.”
Mr O’Kane was responding to comments online that regarded his phrasing as ‘sexist’.
“I’m not apologising for it, it’s in a context that was referring to the undue load that’s put on partners and wives when we’re all out doing what we consider the really important matters.”
Asked if he would make a similar remark when referring to a female politician, he said: “I would think that female politicians still have the dishes to do, there’s nobody behind them. It’s like women out working nowadays, unfortunately or fortunately women nowadays have to work… there are a lot of women out there working whether in politics or not still have to come home and do all the other chores.”
He added: “A woman in public life has to do two jobs, I’m afraid she has to come back home and do other things whereas a male politician can come in, flop down and watch the television and read the newspaper.
“I’m afraid life hasn’t changed that much, maybe there’s not as many metrosexual men around as you might like to think. Basically, women have a double load to do.”
Responding to those claiming the remark was sexist, Mr O’Kane said: “People who have time to do those type of things are looking for offence; they should get a life. It doesn’t concern me in the slightest, and I’m out of public life now so they can say what they like about me.
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