Work Family Issues in Ireland

Annotated Bibliography

Briana Thomson, Amanda Cooke, Tierney St. John, LeeAnn Pratka

December 15, 2006

 

Bacik, Ivana and Eileen Drew. 2006. "Struggling with juggling: Gender and

         work/life balance in the legal professions." Women's Studies International

         Forum 29(2): 136­146.

 

         The number of women in the Irish work force has begun to increase in the last 50 years. As these numbers have slowly increased the number of areas women are flocking to have also increased. A major area that women have flocked to is the area of law. This article examines the roles of gender in the legal profession and how women's work still revolves around juggling two jobs:  work and family. They illustrate how hard it is for women to belong to both areas of life and how it has become increasingly harder for women in the legal profession to balance work and family. This article helped us, because it focuses on a specific area of work that is usually dominated by men. Even though women are struggling in these professions, we think this article is important, because it shows that women are becoming more and more dedicated to the fight for shared paid work.

 

Brewster, Karin L. and Ronald R. Rindfuss. 2000. "Fertility and Women's

         Employment in Industrialized Nations." Annual Review of Sociology

         26: 271­296.

 

         This article examines the relationship between women's employment and fertility as well as to what degree a woman's participation in one of these arenas will affect their involvement in the other. By using research and statistics from multiple industrialized countries since 1965, the authors are able to provide comparative analyses not only cross culturally, but also reflexively within the country to see changes throughout passed decades. The article utilizes research concerning fertility and women's participation in the labor force, on both a structural and individual level, in order to illustrate trends in countries such as the

United States, Canada, Japan, the European Union and Australia. This article presents valuable research and analysis on the causality of the various degrees of incompatibility between women's fertility and female labor force participation in multiple industrialized countries, including Ireland, over the past thirty years.

 

Evans, M. D. R., Jonathan Kelley and Bernadette C. Hayes. 2000. "Family

         Values and Labor Force Participation: Ireland in International

         Perspective." Gender Issues 18(1): 51­76.

 

         This study compares Ireland and other Anglo Celtic nations, including the

United States, Australia and Great Britain, on the entry of married women into the workforce since World War II. The authors go into the investigation wondering if the very devout country of Ireland will be the nation with the least increase in employed women. They found, by studying demographic information that women do work outside the home less in Ireland than in the other countries. The next step was to find out why Ireland stood apart. The authors did this by developing three hypotheses that could be explanatory: 1) Ireland's Conservative Institutions, 2) Ireland's Conservative Family Values, and 3) Ireland's Religious

Devoutness. To test these hypotheses, the authors used data from the International Social Survey Programme. The study shows that it is institutional differences and political impositions that account for the reason fewer women are employed in Ireland than the other countries. Therefore, it is not a uniquely Irish thing, but has to do with Ireland's powerful forces. We used this information, especially the comparisons between Ireland and the other countries, to illustrate the way the country is as well as the causes.

 

Galligan, Yvonne. 1998. "The Changing Role of Women." In Ireland and the

         Politics of Change. New York: Addison Wesley Longman Limited: 107-121.

 

         This selection focuses on the slowly evolving status of women, in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, by exploring how there has been a slight progression in women's participation in public spheres as well as an increase in political consciousness of gender equality in Ireland. Calligan discusses how women's roles and involvement in Irish society has been rigidly traditional and patriarchal, which she attributes to the conservatism of the society as well as the strong presence of traditional religious ideals. This article compares employment statistics of women from 1971 to 1996 and discusses the shift of womenŐs involvement in IrelandŐs paid labor force. Although women's position in the labor force and public spheres have not changed drastically over the past few decades, Calligan points out the presence of women's rights legislation and institutional initiatives that give hope to the breakdown of social and religious hierarchies and traditionalism, which might eventually allow for more equality and opportunity for women in Ireland. This article is helpful to our research because it emphasizes the restricted position of women in modern

Republic of Ireland by means of comparison to the circumstances in Northern

Ireland.

 

Galtry, Judith. 2003. "The Impact on Breastfeeding of Labour Market Policy and

         Practice in Ireland, Sweden and the USA." Social Science & Medicine

         57(1): 167­177.

 

         Galtry analyzes the workplace and social policies in Ireland, Sweden, and

the U.S. on parental leave after childbirth and the effects these policies have on breastfeeding. Research shows that it is healthiest for a baby to be breastfed exclusively for six months. However, if a mother is required to return to work sooner than this, it is almost certain that exclusive breastfeeding will cease.

Using case studies of these countries, Galtry explores the impact country policy has on breastfeeding and, in turn, children's health. She emphasizes the need for both widespread breastfeeding and women's employment. The author is clearly a proponent of policies that allow for these to coexist. Ireland has very low breastfeeding rates comparatively, as well as much lower female employment rates than the other countries. In our site, we address reasons, causes and implications for both of these low rates, as well as the Ireland's parental leave practices, which Galtry discusses in the article.

 

Gray, Jane. 2006. "Gender Composition and Household Labour Strategies in

         Pre­Famine Ireland." The History of the Family 11(1): 1­18.

 

         Gray's article focuses on the early to mid­1800s in Ireland. She looks into the homes in Ireland during these days, exploring the gender composition and roles that each gender played at home. Comparing families that owned farmland and those that did not, she uses the 1821 census data from Cavan, Ireland and

Belfast, Ireland. She believes that there is a direct relationship between land owned and flexibility in deciding whether women work in or out of the home. This study addresses the jobs women held (if any), the help families brought into their homes, and the roles women played at home.  While keeping in mind the type of family and the area they lived in, Gray examines these factors to test her hypothesis about landowners as opposed to industry workers and weavers.

Although this is a study of Ireland in the past, the information on women and their balance of home and work was helpful in providing us with a history of the country's gender roles and expectations.

 

Hyde, Abbey. 1999/0. "Matrilocality and female power: Single mothers in

         Extended Households." Women's Studies International Forum 22(6): 597­

         605.

        

         The article focuses on new mothers in Ireland who are unmarried and live with their parents. Even though there are pitfalls to being an un­wed mother, the article draws attention to matrilcal extended families, and the benefits of returning to the parental home. From a female standpoint, new mothers that live with their parents gain a network to share the responsibilities of caring for an infant, all while taking away the male domination of being in a marriage. With Catholic principles ruling Ireland, returning to live with parents gives the new mother more freedom over her body and her child that she might not get from living with the child's father.

 

Jones, Rachel K. and April Brayfield. 1997. "Life's greatest joy? European

         Attitudes toward the Centrality of Children." Social Forces 75: 1239­1269.

        

         The views on centrality of children are different for men and women.

Women are more affected by children than men; however in Ireland, the centrality of children is low compared to five other European countries.

Comparing men and women in the ways they view children is important to understanding child­care policies in different countries. Since the centrality of children is very low for Ireland, this may give insight as to why the government does not intervene with child­care or why the work force does not give guaranteed paid leave for new fathers.

 

Kain, Edward L. and Niall Bolger. 1986. "Social Change and Women's Work and

         Family Experience in Ireland and the United States." Social Science

         History 10(2): 171­193.

 

         This article explores the shift in women's labor force participation and family experiences in relation to the social and historical contexts of two prominent western countries. This article compares and contrasts Ireland and the

United states in various aspects of how family life and involvement in the paid labor force has evolved in these two countries since the beginning of their respective transformations into urbanized and industrialized societies. This article is particularly effective in comparing and highlighting work­family issues in western culture because Ireland and the United States represent almost opposite ends of the spectrum regarding work­family demographics and statistics. This means that Ireland and the United states occupy opposite poles in terms of typical marriage age, percentage of population that is unmarried, marriage/divorce rates, fertility rates, crude birth rates and various economic statistics. By presenting contexts for how work and family lives are molded in these two countries, the author not only presents a multi dimensional exploration of the work family nexus, but also uses this information to predict future movement and evolution in social change and women's work in industrialized countries.

 

Leonard, Madeleine. 2004. "Teenage Girls and Housework in Irish Society." Irish

         Journal of Sociology 13(1): 73­87.

 

         In many societies, there is an unequal balance of work and family. In Ireland, as in many other countries, research has shown that there is an unequal amount of household work being performed by girls than boys. This article examines the role that teenage girls play in the work of the home and how their attitudes toward past and present traditions affect them. They were asked to evaluate how their parents allocate work and how they think things will be in the future. This article would be a great addition to my paper, because it is investigating how the teenage girls of Ireland feel about the situation.  We think that it would be beneficial to show how these traditions have shaped the youth of this country and how they feel about what could happen when they are parents.

 

Lewis, Suzan and Janet Smithson. 2001. "Sense of Entitlement to Support for the

         Reconciliation of Employment and Family Life." Human Relations

         54(11): 1455­1481.

 

         Lewis and Smithson use focus groups in Norway, Sweden, Portugal,

Ireland and the United Kingdom to assess young people's feelings about what, if any, support they deserve from their government for balancing home and work.

For example, whether these people seem to believe they are entitled to free or subsidized childcare, parental leave practices, and more to help them raise children and work at the same time. Swedish and Norwegian respondents felt that they deserved the most compensation, most likely because these countries have the most progressive policies already in place. Portugal and the United

States were sort of in­between and the Irish deem that they are entitled to almost no assistance. It is helpful for me to compare Ireland to other countries based on their opinions and the reasons for these outlooks. Most likely each country's respondentsŐ beliefs are the result of being brought up in each country. The attitudes seem to reflect the environment they were brought up in and the occurrence of reconciling practices in their home country.

 

Lewis, Suzan, Janet Smithson and Julia Brannen. 1999. "Young Europeans'

         Orientations to Families and Work." The Annals of the American Academy

         of Political and Social Science 562: 83­97.

 

         Being a young person is hard, because you have so many things to learn about not only yourself, but also the ideologies and traditions around you. This article is another cross-cultural investigation about the attitudes of young people. The authors also investigate the feelings of people in Norway, Sweden, Portugal,

Ireland and the UK. The participants discuss how they feel about their family, work and work/family situations and try to project what things will be like for them in the future. This article is more concerned with familial issues related to certain cultural traditions and ideologies. The future plans for participants varied culturally based on economic and social constructs built. This article is very similar to the sense of entitlement idea, but we think it is valuable, because it lays heavy importance on issues around the family, like how they feel towards their family and attitudes. It was interesting to see how the family engrains much of the social ideology into the minds of its youth.

 

Murphy­Lawless, Jo. 2000. "Changing Women's Lives: Child Care Policy in

         Ireland." Feminist Economics 6(1): 89­94.

 

         Addressing the fact that Ireland has one of the lowest rates of formal state childcare provision in the European Union, Murphy­Lawless discusses the plight of the Irish working mother. She deals with the fact that although Irish women have started to enter the workplace, this only adds to their burdens. Now government officials, families and employers expect women to complete work tasks and still complete their home responsibilities. Higher rates of female employment are desirable, however, these rising rates need to be accompanied by new nationwide policy on childcare. This article helped me understand the reasons many women choose not to work in Ireland as well as why those that do work are heavily burdened still by home­tasks. Irish childcare policy or the lack there­of, is a topic we have discussed in-depth while analyzing the work­home balance of Ireland.

 

Nicholls, Kate. 2006. "Why social partnership matters: Irish policies for work – life

         balance." West European Politics 29(3): 513­539.

 

         Women in Ireland are said to have the lowest work­force participation but measures are being taken to reconcile family and work life in order for women to participate in the labor market. Studies show that Irish women are entering the work force at high rates because of new family policies being put in place. This article compares Ireland to the European Union and discusses the policies enacted in Ireland particularly pertaining to childcare. Also discussed are different forms of social partnerships and why they work in Ireland.  This is a valuable piece for us because it lists legislature in place in Ireland for women.

 

Seward, Rudy R., Dale E. Yeatts and Lisa Zottarelli. "Parental Leave and

         Fathers: Availability, Participation, and Consequences in Sweden, the

         United States, and Ireland."

        

         When a child is born into a family, the mother usually takes up responsibility of care. This article addresses the issues of parental leave from work, specifically for fathers, in Sweden, Ireland and the United States. Their decisions to leave work and for how long are determined by their rate of income and job.

There were many positive effects of father leave, such as stronger bonds with their children. This article will be useful because it addresses paternal leave from work and shows that there are in fact positive effects. This article could also be used to show that the more traditional views of Ireland could be revised to show how fathers can better influence their family through contact with their children.

 

Stratigaki, Maria. 2004. "The Cooptation of Gender Concepts in EU Policies: The

         Case of "Reconciliation of Work and Family"." Social Politics 11(1): 30­56.

 

         Stratigaki analyzes the gender equality policies enacted in the European Union and their effectiveness at accomplishing their objectives. The author believes that practices that used to promote gender equality have now been altered in an anti­feminist way. By using the phrase "reconciliation of work and family", officials seem unconcerned with equality for men and women in their responsibilities at home. Jargon affects the results that policies produce and by changing words around just a little, the outcome changes. Stratigaki believes that the main purpose of certain European Union practices has been undermined and forgotten. She completes a content analysis of acts put in place by the EU and scrutinizes the shifting of these acts for other purposes by officials. I plan to use this article to study the policies of the European Union and investigate how they are enacted and upheld in Ireland. We compare, in our site, these continent wide practices with the supplemental nationwide practices of Ireland.

 

Tormey, Roland. 1999. "Cutting at the Wrong Edge: Gender, Part-time Work and

         the Irish Retail Sector." Irish Journal of Sociology 9(1): 77­96.

 

         Tormey's article addresses the prevalence of women in part-time work in Ireland and the circumstances that have led them there. He emphasizes the idea that husbands push many women into part-time work.  In other words, the author believes that some women, if given the choice, would choose full­time work or no outside work at all over working part-time. Tormey conducted a survey of Irish retail workers.

He was concerned with how workers ended up in these part-time jobs. The study was done at a super store and a quality store. Tormey found that most women start at part-time work, work up to full­time, and then switch back to part-time during marriage and/or child­rearing. One of the author's assertions is that even those workers who believe part-time work is ideal for them are not getting what they want out of the situation. Since this article focuses on the reasons women end up working part-time and the repercussions of such arrangements, it was useful in our site. 

 

Whelan, Christopher T. and Tony Fahey. 1994. "Marriage and the Family." Pp.

         45­81 in Values and Social Change in Ireland, edited by C.T. Whelan.

         Dublin: Gill & Macmillan Ltd.

 

         This selection explores various aspects of family issues in Ireland and how the rigid and traditional attitudes towards the roles family members play in Irish society and perspectives on family related issues have changed over the time in

Ireland. This article presents recent policy changes in family related issues, such as divorce, abortion, and treatment of non­marital children as well as how women's roles in family relate to the economy and labor force in Ireland. This article presents statistics regarding how age, sex, country of origin, involvement

in labor force, involvement in home duties and etcetera influence Irish individuals attitudes regarding sex roles. Whelan and Fahey provide insight into the social, political, religious and historical contexts that effect issues concerning family and marriage in Ireland while also providing extensive statistical research as evidence of how the social values regarding the family have evolved over the past 3 decades.

 

Whelan, Christopher T. 1994. "Work Values." Pp. 82­99 in Values and Social

         Change in Ireland, edited by C.T. Whelan. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.

 

         By utilizing statistics, survey results and definitions from the European

Values Survey, Whelan provides a valuable assessment of Irish employment values and issues and how they are affected by such variables as sex, marital status, class, meaning of work, and opinions towards women in the workforce, age, and full time vs. part time employment. Although the article's primary focus is on job satisfaction in Ireland, Whelan discusses very relevant distinctions between how one's gender and marital status has a strong relationship and correlation with the degree to which these individuals are satisfied with their  employment as well as how important he or she considers his or her work.  Likewise, Whelan explains how marriage bars and political restrictions on women's participation in the labor force must be taken into consideration while comparing and contrasting statistics on work values in Ireland. Overall, this article is not only valuable because of its rich statistical information, but also in pointing out how the institutional and legal restrictions placed on certain individuals (i.e. women) within Irish society will influence the meaning of work and satisfaction levels regarding involvement with the Irish labor force.

 

Wills, Clair. 2001. "Women, Domesticity and the Family: Recent Feminist Work in

         Irish Cultural Studies." Cultural Studies 15(1): 33­57.

 

         This article addresses the modernization of the Irish family and the ways

in which this modernization was nothing more than a promotion of the Catholic, traditional family. It encouraged women to take control of the family in some ways, but sought to suppress women's personal desires if they go against those of the church. Wills goes into the many contradictions inherent in Ireland's church's and government's recommendations and practices. Although they think sex should be very private, kept within the family, they place restrictions on the type of sex they consider acceptable, therefore making the matter public. The family, although said to be very private, is under the control of those in power in

Ireland. These issues have served to enlighten our site with a sense of the

domination present in Ireland and how this affects today's families and their choices concerning child­rearing and work.