1. Changing Role of Women in Ireland

2. At start of 20th century Women had very hard lives
their role was to be a wife and mother
spent most of the day in the kitchen
cooking, minding their children,
washing, sewing, cleaning, mending
in rural areas they helped with farm
work - raising chickens and milking cows
- in urban areas, some worked as…
…domestic servants
- had v few rights
- expected to marry, have kids and obey their husbands

3. Fashion Dress fashions (for wealthy women) - dresses that covered up a
…woman’s body
- no ankle showing
- wore hats and had parasols
- corset to give the impression of a
…tight waist
no make-up – only ‘easy’ women wore make up
- Hair worn long – married women hair in a bun

4. Changes in fashion Dresses got shorter as women got more freedom...
Since 1920s this fashion changed
Dresses got shorter
as women got more freedom...
they used their dress styles as a sign of it
- the ‘swinging sixties’ - mini skirts
- or even trousers - popular on women since 60s

5. Women and Voting no vote - they had no say in how society was run
- the suffragette movement demanded vote for women
- famous suffragette –
Hannah Sheehy Skeffington
they protested, smashed shop windows
hunger strike when sent to jail
in 1922 got vote in new Free State
but still didn’t have full equality in society

6. No rights for women couldn’t sit on juries
- marriage bar - law that stopped married women from working in civil service or teaching
- no contraception
- the belief that a woman’s place was in the kitchen

7. From 1960s on women gradually got more rights
- govt introduced free secondary education in 1960s
- girls got education - this made them more aware of their rights
- started to go to universities – now more females graduate than men
- electricity - machines made their household tasks easier (washing machine, cooker)
- this allowed women to work outside home
- tv and the debates on it encouraged the rights of women (The Late Late Show debates)
- Feminist women’s movement - demanded an end to discrimination

8. More rights for women 1972 - end of marriage bar
- laws demanding equal pay for men and women
Employment Equality Act - forbade discrimination in the workplace
- women had been discriminated on the basis of gender and marital status
- by 2000 women had equality before the law
- ireland also had had two female presidents - Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese

9. Final thought but have women achieved full equal rights?
- think of how many women still have to do the housework...
... even after coming home…
…from a full day’s work
v few women politicians -1 in 8
few women bosses - 1 in 5
is this equality?

10. Recap Women had very hard lives Worked in home doing v difficult work
Life improved with electrification
No rights – inferior to men
Dressed v conservatively
No vote
Suffragette movement
Gradually got more rights
Got vote, end of marriage bar, same pay as men, no discrimination in workplace