1. ROLE OF THE WORKING MOTHER
A presentation brought to you by PD&T and DMD
In association with the University of Limerick
Oisin Mc Quinn
Tadgh Doyle
Kate Sedas
Niamh Begley
Killian Vigna
Liam Kenny
Sean Mallen
Emma O’ Leary

2. THE DECADE OF WOMEN
o ―Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive
10 percent of the world’s income and own 1
percent of the means of production.‖
o — Richard H. Robbins, Global Problems and the
Culture of Capitalism, (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), p.
354

3. THE WOMAN’S LAND ARMY 1939
o Advertised as Glamorous and Patriotic by the
Government.
o Work was hard and young women usually worked
in isolated communities
o They were paid 32 shillings a week – about £1.60
(€1.85)
o Skilled women earned £2.15 (€2.48), the wage of
an unskilled man
o Rolls Royce strike – Glasgow, wage raise to that of
a semi-skilled man.

4. FORD DAGENHAM - WOMEN'S STRIKE
o 7th June 1968 - 850 Women Sewing Machinists go
on Strike
o Women paid 87% of a mans wage for equally
skilled roles.
o Car production ceases for 3 weeks before the
intervening of Barbara Castle.
o Women's wage increases to 92% and the 'Equal
Pay Act 1970' is passed.

5. MODERN WOMEN'S WAGE
o 80% of paid females work in Agriculture around
Asian and African regions providing up to 90% of
the worlds food.
o By 2008, 59% of Women worldwide work in
Agriculture earning around 17% of men's wages
working the same job.

6. CHANGING ROLE FOR WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE
o In the beginning of the 20th century, women were regarded as society's
guardians of morality; they were seen as made finer than men and were
expected to act as such. Women were expected to hold on to their
innocence until the right man came along so that they can start a family.
The role of men was to support that family financially
o However, at the turn of the 20th century, social attitudes towards
educating young women were changing. Americans and Western
Europeans were now educating their women more and more. By
1900, four out of five colleges accepted women.
o World War 1 was first to make space for women in the workforce, due to
the rise in demand for production during the raging war, more women
found themselves working outside the home.
o World War 2 allowed for millions of jobs for women. Over 16 million men
left their jobs to join the war in Europe and elsewhere, opening even
more opportunities and places for women to take over in the job force.
Although two million women lost their jobs after the war ended, female
participation in the workforce was still higher than it had ever been.

7. REVOLUTION
 From 1890 to 1930, women in the workforce were typically
young and unmarried. They had little or no learning on the job
and typically held clerical and teaching positions. Many
women also worked in textile manufacturing or as domestics.
Women promptly exited the work force when they were
married, unless the family needed two incomes.
 During the ―Transition Era‖ the time period between 1930 and
1950, we enter into the second phase, married women begin
to exit the work force less and less. Labor force productivity
for married women 35–44 years of age increased from 10% to
25%. As the number of women graduating high school
increased they began to hold more 'respectable', steady jobs.
 ―Roots of the revolution" encompasses the time from 1950-
mid-to-late 1970s. Women's expectations of future
employment changed. Women began to see themselves
going on to college and working through their marriages and
even attending graduate school.

8. THE QUIET REVOLUTION
 The fourth phase, known as the "Quiet Revolution", began in the
late 1970s and continues on today. Beginning in the 1970s
women began to flood colleges and grad schools. They began to
enter profession like medicine, law, dental and business.
 The percentage of women majoring in education declined
beginning in the 1970’s, education was once a popular major for
women since it allowed them to step into and out of the labor
force when they had children.
 Instead, majors such as business and management were on the
rise in the 1970s, as women ventured into other fields that were
once predominated by men. Women worked before they got
married, and since women were marrying younger they were
able to define themselves prior to a serious relationship.
Research indicates that from 1965 to 2002, the increase in
women’s labor force participation more than offset the decline for
men.
 The Quiet Revolution is called such because it was not a "big
bang" revolution; rather, it happened and is continuing to happen
gradually.

9. Gender Inequality by Social Roles

During WW2, women had to enter
the workforce to support their families
and the local economy. Instead of
returning to work at home when their
husbands returned, they stayed in
the workforce.

10.  Girls now had easier access to higher education
which helped them achieve higher paid careers.
The availability of birth control meant that women
could finish their educations and advance in their
careers before starting a family
 Women that didn't have a higher education behind
them ended up in low paying jobs. They would be
paid far less then a male doing the job, as it was
seen that a woman's earning were less important
than a males in regards to supporting a family.
Sexual harassment was a part of everyday life for
most working women. They were dependent on
male approval for hiring and career advancement.

11. QUOTAS
 Quotas are mechanisms by which governments seek to increase
the number of women represented in the governing bodies and
board rooms of companies
 History saw males being hired over females because of old
legislations which made women to quite their public service jobs
when they had a child and had to take on the role as a mother
fulltime instead, with this and other factors it lead to male
dominance in promotion in the workforce for centuries
 Other aspects such as maternity leave had made people perceive
women as unpredictable when they might be out and the cost
involved which effected the rate of women to men being hired
 Under new EU laws being put into place Europe’s listed companies
will be forced to reserve at least 40 per cent of their non-executive
director board seats for women by 2020
 Just 13.7pc of board positions in listed companies in the EU
comprised of women 2013

12.  EU countries – including France, Italy, Spain and the
Netherlands – have already adopted their own
national quotas
 France, introduced them in January
2011, increasing the number of women on
boards by 10 percentage points to 22 per cent in one
year
 There are pros and cons to introducing mandatory
legislation and quotas such as;
- Tension arising other women who oppose
 them are just terrified of the idea of women
 being judged of having got into a position of
 power through extra help
- It will reintroduce women to a workforce
 to a level that would be expected if existing
 legislation/ traditions which saw women having
 to leave work

13. WORKING WOMEN AND THE LAW
 The equal pay act of 1970
 The Sex Discrimination act of 1975
 The Employment Protection (consolidation ) Act
1978

14. SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975
Prevent discrimination which can create
obstacles for women in
obtaining and retaining employment.
 Recruitment : Use of sexist terminology
in advertising
 Promotion and Training : Access to
particular skills training
 Availability for work: Part time work

15. THE EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION ACT 1978
 The right to not be unfairly dismissed because of
pregnancy
 The right to return to the same job after
confinement
 The right to paid time off for ante-natal care
 The right to statutory maternity pay

16. BARRIERS TO EQUAL PARTICIPATION
Wages
 Field, position and period of absence all have an impact.
If grounds to get certain salary are open, it is more
possible for everyone to get the same wage. The fields
that are mostly women workers are usually paid less.
Also in the same field, women tend to get less, as they
are placed in different tasks. Even in the same task
women get less wage on average than male colleagues.
 If cost of maternity leave and parenthood are not equally
divided between employers, the temptation to hire a
man is higher thus creating an expectation for women to
take care of children and paternity leave is shorter and
less likely to be taken.

17. FROM GOLF FIELDS TO DRINKING DINNERS
 A lot of socializing and networking is
done outside the office or meeting
places. In some of these places there
are restrictions to people who can
attend. A lot of deals and agreements
are often done in these places. If you
can´t get access to these because of
your sex, you are much more less
likely to be involved and may be out
of the loop. In the past, this included
many clubs and pubs, and the golf
course is a fine example of both work
related socialising and also gender
discrimination in certain clubs.

18. APPRECIATION
 Technical fields are often more valued than jobs
among other human beings, usually fields with a lot
of women workers. Usually this difference is taught
in school without any real studies behind; boys or
girls are better in some subjects just because. Or
still somewhere boys are send to school as girls are
rather seen as a household helpers.
"universities rated the application materials of a student—who was
randomly assigned either a male or female name—for a laboratory
manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as
significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female
applicant. These participants also selected a higher starting salary
and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant."
-Corinne A. Moss-Racusin, 2012

19. HIERARCHY
 Amount of women is smaller the closer you get to
higher hierarchy, more competitive and more
valued tasks. The way women lead differs from
men and sometimes this is understood as a
weakness instead of resource. Sometimes women
are too critical, as men seem to see themselves
competent for the task when women are still
considering. Lack of role
models, prejudices, coordination of family and work
life, work distribution and possible sexual
harassment are all factors.

20. ―women who present themselves as confident and
ambitious in job interviews are viewed as highly
competent but also lacking social skills. Women
who present themselves as modest and
cooperative, while well liked, are perceived as low
on competence. By contrast, confident and
ambitious male candidates are viewed as both
competent and likable and therefore are more likely
to be hired as a manager than either confident or
modest women.‖
- Psychology of Women Quarterly, Julie E.
Phelan, 2008

21. WOMEN IN POWER , POLITICAL AND HUMANITARIAN

―Thatcherism‖ was both substantial and essentially about
political economy.
 Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic
initiatives to reverse what she perceived to be Britain’s
precipitous national decline.
 Margaret Thatcher revitalised Britain’s economy, curbed
the trade unions, and re-established the nation as a world
power.
 She has been criticised as being divisive and for
promoting greed and selfishness.
 In terms of modern day politics she was the most
powerful and influential women.

22. The Princess developed an intense interest in
serious illnesses and health-related matters
outside the purview of traditional royal
involvement, including AIDS and leprosy.
In addition, she was the patroness of charities
and organisations working with the
homeless, youth, drug addicts, and the elderly.
In 2007, Tina Brown wrote a biography about
Diana as ―restless and demanding ... obsessed
with her public image‖ and also a
―spiteful, manipulative, media-savvy neurotic.‖
―one of the most beloved female public figures
―

23. THE GLASS CEILING
DEFINITION"A gender or racial difference that
is not explained by other job-relevant
characteristics of the employee.―
―the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that
keeps minorities and women from rising to the
upper rungs of the corporate
ladder, regardless of their qualifications or
achievements
The Pipeline Theory describes the situation in
which women are placed on a track that would
eventually promote them to a top executive
position. However, this process is long, and
women sometimes spend 20–35 years in the
pipeline waiting to advance to CEO positions

24. STATISTICS
 While there is a slight upward trend in the number of women leaders, the
overall figures are still very low. In business leadership in 2009, women held
49% of the jobs in the U.S. and 50% of all managerial positions.
 In 2010 only 2.4% of the U.S. Fortune 500 chief executives were female. In
the FTSE 500 the statistics are even worse--only 1.8% of its companies are
led by women. Women's access to boardroom seats is also
troubling, particularly in the U.S. and U.K. In the FTSE 100, for
example, 12.5% of directors are women, a tiny improvement on the 12.2% in
2009 and 11.7% in 2008.

25. REFERENCES
 Perkin, Joan (1993). Victorian Women. London: John Murray
(Publishers) Ltd. p. 189. ISBN 0-7195-4955-8.
 Davis, R.L: "The Social and Cultural Life of the 1920s" p.10.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1972
 Walker, R.H: "Life in the Age of Enterprise" p. 120-121. Capricorn Books.
1971
 Green, E:"The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945" p. 57-58.
HarperCollins 1992
 Goldin, Claudia. The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's
Employment, Education and Family. The American Economic
Review, Vol. 96, No. 2 (May, 2006), pp. 1-21.
 http://www.economist.com/node/21549953
 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65f494e6-f5e7-11e1-a6c2-
00144feabdc0.html#axzz2PrGfqZuJ
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9519251/EC-could-fine-
companies-if-they-miss-female-board-quota.html
 Morris, A. and Nott, S. (1991) Working Women and the Law :
Equality and Discrimination in Theory and Practice