Late 20th Century

• 1960s - Gradual Change:

  • As the economy grew, more employees were needed. Many of these new jobs went to women, who made up 25% of the workforce by 1970. New jobs that required high qualifications were opened to women, such as doctors, engineers and lawyers.
• Irish Feminist Movement:

  • Feminism is the movement aiming to achieve equal rights in all aspects of life for men and women.
  • Irish women founded the Irish Women's Liberation Movement in 1971. They pressured politicians and protested by marching to draw attention to the inequality they faced.
• • On one occasion, the IWLA went to Belfast and consumed aspirin, live on television, with the Republic watching and thinking it was contraceptive which was banned in the Republic.
  • Another time, a group of women ordered 30 whiskeys and one pint of Guinness in a pub. They weren't served the pint so they drank the whiskeys and left, without paying.
• • In 1972, the Commission on the Status of Women recommended that Ireland remove the legal barriers to equality. The European Commission also pressured Ireland to promote equality. During the 1980s and 1990s;
  • The marriage bar was removed
  • The Anti-Discrimination Act of 1974 made it illegal to pay men more for the same work
  • The Employment Equality Act of 1977 put a stop to discrimination based on sex or marital status against people in the workplace
  • The ban on contraception was removed gradually in 1978 and 1985, then fully removed in 1993.
  • Divorce was made legal in 1996.