What is the experience of women in the workplace and what are their attitudes and ambitions towards employment?
For the series 'Week In' Áine O'Connor looks at what the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act 1974 and the Employment Equality Act 1977 mean in practical terms for Irish women. As a result of this legislation, she wonders if women are taking their rightful place in society?
On a visit to a school Lucy from An Chomhairle Oiliúna (AnCo) meets with a class of 13-year-old girls. She hopes to show them that there is a wide range of available career choices available. This is important as girls tend to make conservative choices based on what has gone before them. This is borne out by some students who say they want to be secretaries, bank clerks or work in Aer Lingus. A couple of the girls think they will work for 10 years before getting married,
Me husband can have a job.
By speaking to young women Lucy hopes to,
Challenge the assumptions that only certain types of work are suitable for women and encourage them to find work that will suit their own particular abilities and that will give them satisfying careers in the long term.
Since 1970 the Irish Life Assurance Company has employed married women. Women there have maternity leave, equal perks to men, a tangible career path, and a future with the company.
You can progress further now because women do not see it as a stopgap until they get married, they do see that they have a future in the company and that the outlets are there.
Women employed by Irish Life know,
With as much hard work as their male colleges they can progress along the same ladder.
Eithne is the department head of financial accounts in Irish Life Four. Men traditionally held her role,
I actually, you know, succeeded a man.
Another woman does not think a woman's place is at home raising a family. She feels it is an individual choice but often childcare facilities impact this decision.
This is the real big issue at the moment that without childcare facilities, all maternity leave has done really is extended a woman’s time at work.
She thinks,
Without proper childcare facilities that the woman doesn’t really have a choice.
After a 20 year gap, Susan returned to work. Her children were older and,
I found it an awful lot of time on my hands.
She undertook a three week AnCO course for women returning to work. She has since discovered she has a flair for typing and book-keeping.
Winnie returned to work when she became widowed. She needed to earn money, had a child to educate, and hated the monotony of having nothing to do. Work gives her the human interaction she needs to thrive. It also gives her something to discuss with her children when she returns home from the workplace.
The episode of 'Week In' was broadcast on 10 December 1979. The reporter is Áine O'Connor.
