Women And Work In Ireland

This book chronicles the evolution of women’s participation in the labour force in Ireland over the last five decades. This was largely spearheaded by married women and mothers, leading to many related social issues including childcare, flexible working, the sharing of domestic work and work-life balance. The book presents empirical data on these topics, drawn from the author’s research spanning several decades, and shows how attitudes have evolved and influenced the development of social policy. The book begins by exploring the factors which predisposed some married women to enter the workplace in the early 1970s while most did not and examines the relative well-being of housewives and employed married women. It demonstrates the effects the anti-discrimination legislation of the 1970s had on women’s perceived discrimination over time, showing that women initially denied their own discrimination. The history of childcare policy is examined from the early Government Working Party reports of the 1980s to the evolution of childcare policy in Ireland. Issues of work-life balance are presented through cross-cultural comparisons from Ireland and several European countries, and key questions are asked, such as "are men who work part-time seen as less serious about their careers?" The concluding chapter focuses on how women’s role in the workplace impacts on men and gender relations. Questions are posed concerning the ways in which men’s roles need to adapt and the extent to which workplaces and social policy also need to change to accommodate men and women’s needs for work-life balance. The book will be of interest to social scientists and to students. It will be a valuable resource for courses in the sociology of work and the family, gender studies, social psychology and Irish studies. By providing quantitative data in an accessible form, it will also provide a valuable case study for courses in social research methods.

Covering over 400 years of history, this book explores the working experiences of Irish women, covering business, education, medicine, prison, and child care, among other broad topics. The mostly Irish scholars contributing to this collection offer articles such as a case study of women in business

Ã?Â?Ã?«Clear has examined a wealth of primary and secondary materials and convincingly refutes a number of clichÃ?Â?Ã?Â's about the lives and status of Irish women. She also provides Ã?Â?Ã?Â?insights into the changing conditions of Irish women.Ã?Â?Ã?Â- Choice Ã?Â?Ã?«the author has broken new ground and encouraged a reassessment of previous histiography of womenÃ?Â?Ã?Â-s role in society.Ã?Â?Ã?Â- The History Review

At the heart of this book is an exploration of how women negotiated their identities as workers and the very real challenges of accessing and remaining in the workplace in a sociocultural context that encouraged home-based marriage and motherhood as primary roles for women. The obstacles women encountered in relation to employment in terms of limited access to education, restricted employment opportunities and profound gender discrimination are revealed. So too are the ways in which women resisted, challenged and negotiated the limited roles prescribed during these decades. --Book Jacket.

Women in Ireland 1800-1918 presents a valuable and significant collection of over 100 sources and documents relating to the public and private aspects of women's lives in Ireland during the period 1800-1918. The documents reveal aspects of the women's working lives, educational experiences, involvement in politics and of their private lives such as contraception, childbirth, love, marriage and religion. Each section has a comprehensive introduction which discusses the contents of the documents. As the first major survey of Irish women's lives during this period, it will appeal to those who want a deeper understanding of how women of all classes lived their lives and it will prove indispensable to second and third level students, those attending women's studies courses, as well as a wide general readership interested in assessing the role of women in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Irish history.