Is the abolition of the marriage bar to blame for the lack of job opportunities for young people?
Chairperson of the Institute of Professional Civil Servants (IPCS) Anna O'Farrell is attending the annual delegate conference in Dún Laoghaire. She responds to a statement by the president of the Post Office Officials' Association, Tim Leddin, who said married employed women are depriving school leavers of employment.
The introduction of the Civil Service (Employment of Married Women) Act, 1973, ended the legal requirement that women working in state jobs retire upon marriage. The IPCS have drawn up a charter for women, which states,
The married woman should have the right for her development of her own personality to choose whether she wishes to go to work or not.
Anna O'Farrell does not think married women who opt to work are responsible for the lack of jobs available to young people.
We've had unemployment and high emigration long before the bar was removed.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 12 April 1976.
