Background to the Research

• As women, particularly mothers, enter the labour market in increasing numbers much of the research in this area in the 1990s has centred around measuring discernible changes in attitudes to work, marriage and family.
• Despite the availability of data on this theme regarding NI and the ROI, little comparative analysis has been carried out to date.
  

Research Approach

• The authors analyse data from the Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Survey (1995) and the International Social Survey Programme (1994) in order to explore similarities and differences between attitudes in NI and the ROI regarding family and changing gender roles.
  

Main Findings

The Irish Labour Markets

• In 1991, the rate of economic activity for women in NI was 61% compared with 50% in ROI.
• In the same year, women's share of employment stood at 43% in NI, 10% higher than in the ROI.
• Between 1989 and 1994 in the ROI there was an increase in women's employment of 20%, compared with only 3% for men.
• In 1991, 34% of women at work in NI were part-time, compared to 17% in ROI.

Gender Roles

• Broadly speaking, women in both parts of Ireland are more likely than men to take an egalitarian stance, rejecting the view that work and family life are incompatible. However, women in ROI appear to be more traditional than their NI counterparts, particularly with regard to the effects of women working on family life.
• With regard to the proposition that 'a woman's place is in the home' men from NI appear less traditional than those in ROI (53% and 48% disagreeing). The views of women from the two parts of Ireland are much more similar, though more women from NI disagree that 'what most women really want is a home and children' (47% and 38%).
• When responding to questions regarding the importance of work, in both parts of Ireland men and women are less likely to come down on the side of independence and more likely to agree that women have to work. There is strong support for the idea that both men and women should contribute to the household, with 71% of men and women in NI agreeing with this statement alongside 75% of men and 80% of women in ROI.
• Where the man stays at home while the woman works, men are more likely than women to be uncomfortable. In NI more men than women agree that role reversal is not a good thing (36% and 24% respectively ). This is also true of ROI where 41% of men and 32% of women agree.

Working Women and the Family Life Cycle

• A majority of men and women in NI continue to believe that a woman should stay at home if she has a child under school age (60% and 55% respectively). Conversely, 53% of women in ROI feel a woman should work - though most approved of part-time over full-time work.
• Both men and women in ROI are slightly more likely to approve of full-time work for mothers of school age children (26% for both genders), compared to those in NI (21% and 22% respectively).
• Divergence appeared between ROI and NI in relation to part-time work. Around two-thirds of men and even more women in NI would prefer mothers of school-age children to work part-time. In ROI it is the choice of only 43% of men and 55% of women.

The Domestic Division of Labour

• In 1994, women on both sides of the border are still responsible for most household chores, including shopping for groceries and deciding what is for dinner. Laundry is still being carried out by 88% of women in both parts of Ireland and men continue to carry out the small repairs around the home (81% in NI and 71% in ROI. Caring for a sick family member is more likely to be shared betwenn men and women on both sides of the border.
• In NI, women working part-time are far more likely to have responsibility for shopping for groceries (67%) than either those in full-time work (55%) or the home-makers (52%). Similarly, for laundry and deciding what to have for dinner, the NI women who work part-time are closer to the homemakers than those working full-time.

Attitudes to Children and Marriage

• Around 70% of people in both the North and South agree with the proposition that people who want children ought to get married. Both men and women in ROI are more likely to see the main purpose of marriage as having children than their counterparts in NI.
• Both men and women in ROI are more likely to think that couples should stay together than people in NI, and that divorce is not the best option. Women in ROI and NI are less likely to believe that couples should stay together for the sake of the children than men.