International Perspectives on Gender
International Perspectives on Gender
Week 18: Gender and Modernization in the Irish Republic
1. Introduction
Four distinct phases: Rapid economic, social and cultural change in the 1960s and 1970s
Recession and backlash in the 1980s
Economic boom in the 1990s
Recession from 2008
How were these changes related to gendered ideologies and experiences?
2. 1960s/1970s (Modernisation)
Sean Lemass took over from DeValera as leader of Fianna Fail and as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1959.
DeValera’s aim: a Gaelic utopia, self-sufficient and cocooned from external forces
Lemass’ aim: a modern Ireland, industrialised, entrepreneurial and outward looking.
Programmes for Economic Expansion: attracted foreign investment, promoted export-oriented industry by:
Dismantling tariff barriers;
Seeking access to international markets;
Offering capital grants and tax concessions to foreign firms.
1961: Ireland applied to join EEC, accepted in 1973
1965: free trade agreement with Britain and Ireland
Results: rising industrial growth rates, falling unemployment and emigration, over 300 foreign firms.
Agriculture mechanized, urbanization increased, net immigration
Impact on gender roles and ideologies
Male farmers and agricultural labourers benefitted from mechanization and more men entered non-agricultural work. Rural women’s workload reduced.
Elsewhere women in demand in new industries - electronics, electricals and pharmaceuticals.
Women also in demand as clerical staff in service sector (eg. banking, insurance) and as teachers and nurses.
Married women in paid employment up by 300% in the 1960s and 1970s
In 1971 14% of women in paid work outside the home were married, in 1994 45%.
The ideology of separate roles for men and women was beginning to fragment.
Women’s wages were low, but raised living standards and their bargaining position
Family size fell – in 1964 total fertility rate was just over 4 children per woman, by 1980 just over 3. Church’s teachings on contraception being ignored.
Consumer boom, increased tourism opened Ireland up to world.
Radio introduced in 1950s, TV in early 1960s: brought issues of sexual morality to fore
The Late, Late (popular TV talk show)
Sizeable and growing minority began to question doctrine of ‘natural’ law (one ‘right’ Catholic law which should be reflected in state laws) and their own adherence to Catholicism.
‘Special position’ of Catholic Church revoked in 1972
Women Organising
Much to campaign for:
Contraception was illegal;
divorce was banned;
abortion was a criminal act;
single mothers and separated women were ineligible for welfare payments;
women were openly discriminated against in education, employment and the tax and welfare systems; marriage bar prevented women from keeping jobs after marriage.
1970: Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM) founded.
Chains or Change, their 6-point manifesto, called for equal pay, equal access to education, equality before the law, justice for deserted wives, unmarried mothers and widows, access to contraception and for each house to accommodate only one family.
Marriage bar lifted in 1973, Anti-Discriminatory Pay Act of 1973 and 1977 Employment Equality Act
Legislation increased women’s property rights and protected them if marriage broke down.
Illegitimacy abolished but single parents continued to be discriminated against.
Campaigns to end violence against women and for lesbian rights.
Access to Contraception
Contraception banned by the 1935 Criminal Law Amendment Act.
Pill introduced in 1962, but prescribed as ‘menstrual regulator’ not a contraceptive
By end of 1967 estimated that 12,000 Irish women were using the pill, 38,000 by 1973.
One woman brought state to court over access to contraception in 1973. Lost but won on appeal.
1979 Health (Family Planning) Act: married couples only could buy contraceptives legally with prescription
1985: all non-medical contraceptives became available to women over 18.
Despite important gains, traditional elements of Irish society remained. There was an uneasy co-existence of conservative/traditional elements with more modern/liberal ones (sometimes in the same person).
3. 1980s: Recession and Backlash
Recession was compounded by huge government borrowing and the multinationals quickly packed up and left.
Unemployment rose quickly and emigration took off.
Female labour force participation rate stagnated around 35%
Urban poverty rose.
Criminal activity, often focused around drugs, increased.
Impact on Gender Roles and Ideologies
A conservative backlash sought to regain control over women’s bodies
75% of population turned out for visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979, reinvigorating moral conservatism
Abortion
Had been no public campaign for abortion in Ireland.
Contraception and abortion were not linked.
But Irish women were having abortions illegally in Ireland or in England (some 5,000 a year in the 1980s).
Irish Pregnancy Counselling Centre and Well Woman Clinic offered women non-directive pregnancy advice.
Arrival of Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) and establishment of PLAC: the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign put abortion on the map.
PLAC wanted to constitutionally ban abortion.
1983: referendum to amend constitution to give pregnant woman and unborn child equal rights passed by majority of 2:1.
Irony: all women knew about abortion!
Censorship followed: live discussion of abortion on radio or TV banned; women’s self-help books such as Our Bodies, Our Selves banned; British telephone directories removed from public libraries; legal action taken against Dublin Well Women Centre, Open Line Counselling and the Union of Students for providing information on abortion.
Irish fertility rates declined over 1980s, from over 3 children in 1980 to just 2 in 1990.
Divorce
1986 referendum to legalise divorce defeated. At start of campaign, 3/5 of country supported divorce, at end 2/3 was against. Illustrates power of Catholic church to influence opinion.
Other high profile cases:
teacher fired for having a child outside marriage
the 15-year-old girl who died (in a church grave yard) giving birth to a still-born baby
the largest public inquiry to date over why one woman concealed the birth of her own child.
Smyth: illustrate the ‘unprecedented social, psychic and moral battering’ that women in Ireland were subjected to in the 80s.
But women were organising for change, developing educational and cultural projects in particular
4. 1990s: Gender and the ‘Celtic Tiger’
Economy boomed again: the ‘Celtic Tiger’ was born
Highest economic growth in world for most of 1990s
1996: GNP per capita exceeded that in the UK.
Female labour force participation rate rose steadily
Fall in fertility rates enabled more women to take paid work and increased ratio of working to non-working population, which fuelled economic growth.
National income rose 44% between 1993 and 1998, inflation was low, the national debt falling, public finances healthy and export growth strong.
Return migration again, high public confidence, tourism booming
Men’s labour force participation rate stagnated, unemployment was masculinized, unskilled sector declined.
Relative poverty increased.
Public confidence in moral and political authority of church and state profoundly undermined by crisis and controversy. Some politicians in financial scandals, some church leaders in sexual and physical abuse scandals.
Majority still Catholic but less belief in the institution of Catholicism.
Impact on gender roles and ideologies
More women in paid work than ever
Labour force participation rate approx. 48% for women in 2000, 71% for men.
1991: Workers’ Protection act was introduced to protect part-time workers
1995: Maternity Protection Act.
1997: Employment Equality Act
1995: Divorce legalised
1995: Health boards made responsible for ensuring access to contraception.
1990: Mary Robinson elected as President
1992: Record number of female candidates elected to the Dail
Robinson: it looked as though the hand that rocked the cradle was now rocking the system.
But not all been gains: maternity protection act was not far-reaching enough;
benefits system continues to reinforce norm or patriarchal nuclear family
divorce referendum passed by very narrow margin (less than 1%)
most of women elected later lost their seats.
Irish women do more reproductive work than women anywhere in Europe
Double day for women as paid work is mostly full-time
Between 1/5 and 1/3 of women affected by violence in intimate relations.
Abortion: The ‘X’ Case
1992: Attorney General took out an injunction to restrain a pregnant 14 year old girl who had been raped from travelling to England, with the support and consent of her parents, for an abortion.
Public outrage followed and government did U-turn, encouraging an appeal.
Referenda followed: on legality of distribution information on abortion and on women’s right to travel for an abortion. Both passed.
In 1999 Equality Authority established, to enforce Employment Equality Act of 1998 and Equal Status Act of 2000 and make illegal workplace or goods or service provision discrimination on grounds of gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, race, sexual orientation, religious belief and membership of travelling community.
Abortion issue re-opened in March 2002 – campaign to remove threat of pregnant woman’s suicide as grounds for abortion. Lost narrowly (50.42% voted yes, 49.58% voted no)
Web resources: Irish Family Planning Association: http://www.ifpa.ie/
Pro-life campaign, Ireland: http://www.prolifecampaign.ie/
Men in Modern Ireland
Still dominate top echelons of business, church and politics
Some feel threatened by women’s new visibility in public sphere and seek backlash
Others recognize women’s claims and have renegotiated their investments in hegemonic masculinity
Men’s Health in Ireland (2004): men die on average 6 years younger than women
Men have higher death rates at all ages for leading causes of death
Four times more men than women die by suicide
Three times more men than women die in RTAs
93% of drink-driving convictions are of men
heavy drinking among men has reached 41% of population
5. 2008-
Banking crisis exacerbated by unsustainable housing boom.
Average price of Dublin home increased over 500% from 1994, construction 25% of GDP
Bank losses led to government bail-out and then government itself needed 85 billion Euros of loans in December 2010.
Emigration increasing again, especially graduates and professionals
Unemployment 15% of workforce
Fianna Fail lost Irish general election in February 2011 – Fine Gael in coalition with Labour.
6. Conclusion
New state initially prescribed a role for women within the family and the home
Over past 40 years public persona of women in Ireland has been established and gender ideology of Church and state challenged.
But women’s position still ambiguous.
O’Connor: ‘. . . unless [Ireland’s] institutional structures reflect and reinforce a positive valuation of womanhood in all its multifacetedness then, truly, [Ireland] remains no country for women . . . or indeed for men’.