Forty years on from the lifting of the Civil Service marriage ban, half of working women in Ireland say they do not earn enough to be financially independent.
A specially-commissioned Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll profiling the lives of modern women has found that 49 per cent of employed females believe they need additional income from a family member or the State to have a reasonable standard of living. Yet women give a positive assessment of their work/life balance in the current difficult economic climate, with 83 per cent saying the balance they are able to strike between career and leisure time is good.
The Women At Work series in The Irish Times over the next week will document four decades of radical social change for Irish women and reflect their perception of how society values their contribution in the home as well as the in workplace in 2013.
The opinion poll, which asked challenging questions of both men and women, found 43 per cent of women believed females in paid employment were more valued by Irish society than those who worked in the home.
Careers
In contrast, only 9 per cent of women said those who stayed at home were more esteemed. The poll also examined attitudes to careers. It found just 7 per cent of women in relationships described themselves as the most job-focused member of a couple.
Significant gender differences emerged in response to certain questions, with 68 per cent of men indicating their earnings alone would ensure personal financial security while 31 per cent thought they required assistance.
When asked about work/life balance, 75 per cent of men described theirs as good.
The male view of the value society placed on women who worked in the home was also different from that of their female counterparts.
Twenty-eight per cent of men believed society placed more value on women who worked outside the home and 14 per cent said those who stayed at home were more highly valued.
Fifty-four per cent of men and 45 per cent of women believed both groups were valued equally.
The poll was carried out between May 16th and May 23rd. A nationally representative sample of 1,000 people was interviewed.
