Background to the Research

• The chapter explores the relationship between the welfare sates of the North and South of Ireland and women, as they experience pregnancy and the first year of motherhood. It aims to offer a model of motherhood that includes women's roles as carers, earners and lifegivers and to compare the social construction of motherhood in the two parts of Ireland.
  

Research Approach

• The author examines statistical data on women as mothers and explores the welfare systems in the North and South as they relate to maternity entitlements.
  

Main Findings

Mothers as Earners, Carers and Lifegivers

• Traditionally, theories of welfare have tended to focus on mothers as carers or as carers and earners and have tended to neglect their role as lifegivers.

Women as Mothers in NI and Ireland

• Welfare regimes, North and South, can be said to be based on the male breadwinner model - where a women is treated as the dependant of her employed/unemployed husband.

Statistical Profile of Mothers

• In 1993 in Ireland there were 49,456 births and 26,236 births in the North of Ireland for the same period. The age range 15-45 years is the most common age of mothers of young children in Ireland and NI. The number of women in this age range in Ireland is 777,176 and 332,319 in Northern Ireland.
• Comparative data for Ireland and NI for live births from 1926-1993 show a steady decline in fertility rates in both parts of the island, but with a lower rate of birth in the South.

Maternity Entitlements

• In Ireland, maternity leave was introduced in 1981 under the Maternity Protection of Employees Act, the most recent legislation is the 1994 Maternity Protection Act. This Act brought in measures to encourage improvements in the health and safety at work of pregnant workers and workers who have given birth or are breast-feeding. Employed workers are entitled to 14 weeks maternity leave - 4 of which must be taken before the expected date of delivery and 4 weeks after. A woman can have an additional 4 weeks of unpaid leave.
• In NI the period of maternity leave is 18 weeks, with the option of taking up to 29 weeks unpaid leave. In NI the rate of statutory maternity benefit is less overall than in the South. The first 6 weeks is paid at a rate of 90% of salary, the remaining 12 weeks is paid at £52.50 per week for those who earn in excess of £58 per week (1995 rate), others receive a lower rate of £45.55.
• In both parts of Ireland, it seems that the state decides how much time a woman can take away from the paid labour market. Women outside the paid labour market and women who work below a certain number of hours per week are largely ignored in terms of financial support. In Ireland there is a means tested grant of £8 or the chance of a discretionary payment under the Exceptional Needs Scheme.
• In the 1980s and 1990s, the Social Security System linked maternity protection more closely to paid employment with the abolition of maternity grants and allowances for those not in employment.
• Women in the North are better off than their Southern counterparts in terms of maternity healthcare services. Women in the South, under the Maternity and Infant Care Scheme, can only receive free medical care during pregnancy and for 6 weeks after delivery. After this period eligibility criteria must be met and only 54% of women in the 16-44 age group are eligible for medical cards.
• Paternity leave does not exist in the South and in NI it is only available for 5 days.

Conclusions

• Pregnancy and motherhood in the two parts of Ireland are set within the context of a male-breadwinner model of welfare provision in which women are given an allotted period of time to proceed from conception to lactation.
• A woman who is part of the paid workforce is expected to manage pregnancy and motherhood, while a woman outside the paid workforce is expected to be dependent on a male breadwinner or the state for financial support.