THE CHANGING EXPERIENCE OF WOMEN IN 20TH-CENTURY IRELAND


The 1960s Onwards – How and Why Did Women’s Lives Change?


23


Explain the changing experiences of women in the later decades of 20th-century Ireland


Key Words Equal pay


Commission on the Status of Women set up


Women’s Liberation


Movement founded in Ireland 1970


Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act


1974


Employment Equality Act: unlawful to discriminate on


grounds of sex or marital status


1977


First Minister of State for Women’s Affairs, Nuala Fennell, appointed


1982 Discrimination Chronological awareness


Divorce referendum passed


1996


Equal Status Act prohibited discrimination


2000


1958


Ban on married primary teachers lifted


1973


Ireland joined EEC (European Economic Community) (later EU)


1976


EEC compelled Irish Government to implement equal pay for women


1979 Contraception


allowed for married couples over 18


1990


Mary Robinson elected first woman President of Ireland


1997


Mary McAleese elected President of Ireland


Why did the position of women change gradually in the 1960s?


1. Girls had greater access to education – this raised girls’ expectations of what they could achieve.


2. Outside ideas influenced life in Ireland, particularly from America (see pp. 392–3) where the women’s liberation movement had its origins.


3. The growing economy provided job opportunities.


4. Ireland joined the United Nations (UN) in 1955 and the EEC in 1973. The EEC (later the EU) often forced Ireland to bring in laws to eliminate inequality between men and women.


5. The women’s movement demanded changes and greater equality for women. The Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM) was founded in Dublin in 1970. It drew its inspiration from the women’s movement in America in the 1960s. It also drew inspiration from authors such as Betty Friedan who wrote The Feminine Mystique, demanding more to life than ‘marriage, motherhood and homemaking’ (p. 393). ● The IWLM published Chains or Change in 1971, a critical analysis of the position of women in Irish society at that time. The movement got wide publicity through appearances on The Late Late Show, and actions such as the Contraceptive Train to Belfast to buy contraceptives, which were illegal in the Republic of Ireland.


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