To examine how things have changed for women in Ireland, Fintan O’Toole, journalist and commentator, compiled 10 things that women could not do in 1970, for the Irish Times. Here’s a brief synopsis.
Women in Ireland could not…
1. Keep their jobs in the public service or in a bank once they married
Women who worked in the civil service had to resign from their jobs when they became wives.
2. Sit on a jury
Any Irish citizen who sat on a jury had to be property owners according to the 1927 Juries Act, thus excluding the majority of women.
3. Buy contraceptives
According to the 1935 Criminal Law Amendment Act, the import, sale and distribution of contraceptives was illegal. As a result the majority of women had no access to contraceptives, apart from the Pill which was sometimes prescribed as a "cycle regulator".
4. Drink in a pub
During the 1970s, most bars refused to allow women to enter a pub. Those who allowed women to enter generally did not serve females pints of beer.
5. Collect their Children’s Allowance
In 1944, the legislation that introduced the payment of child benefits to parents specified they could only be paid to the father.
6. Women were unable to get a barring order against a violent partner
7. Before 1976 they were unable to own their home outright
According to Irish Law, women had no right to share the family home and her husband could sell their property without her consent.
Read More: Irish women speak out in anger over their abortions in Britain
8. Women could not refuse to have sex with their husband
A husband had the right to have sex with his wife and consent was not an issue in the eyes of the law.
9. Choose her official place of residence
Once married, a woman was deemed to have the same "domicile" as her husband.
10. Women could not get the same pay for jobs as men
In March 1970, the average hourly pay for women was five shillings, while that for men was over nine. The majority of women were paid less than male counterparts.
Read More: Why American women lose out to their Irish counterparts
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.connemaragirl | Jun 01, 2013, 03:10 AM EDT
You have no idea what your talking about ,of course women were allowed in pubs in 1970 and the sixties,even children were allowed in pubs with their parents,I know what I'm talking about I was one of them.
Smyrnian | May 31, 2013, 01:11 PM EDT
Women were allowed in pubs and did have a drink there from tone to time. It was not the norm, the custom or the accepted thing but it was not illegal.
Eireannach | May 31, 2013, 07:48 AM EDT
A typical mindless rant from the Irish hating 'Irish Times'. For unknowing Americans the 'Irish' Times does not represent the typical views of native Irish people - it is run by a team of vapid, eternally adolescent writers all with a Unionist or 'West Brit' (not to be confused with British perspective) perspective. They are reactionary and worryingly immature. The problem is that the government listens too much to them - to all the propaganda, and few can seem to stand back and take an objective stance. Regarding this fascile article conditions were very similar in all the western world regarding these issues. The Irish media loves to claim Ireland is different and unique when its really just part of western europe re trends, social history etc etc
dingle999 | May 30, 2013, 10:19 PM EDT
WoundedKnee | Dec 15, 2012, 11:31 AM EST Change a tire? Oops, still can't. -- Then again you cannot become pregnant (Thanks be to God)
BelfastJimmy | May 30, 2013, 09:26 PM EDT
I happened to be drinking in Neary's in Dublin the other day and recalled that fact that when I drank there in the 70's women were not allowed in the bar at all. In the 'lounge' they were only served a 'glass'. Back then some women came in to protest by dancing on the bar top!
dingle999 | May 30, 2013, 09:05 PM EDT
The Catholic Church played a dreadful role in all of this.. Single people could not buy condoms legally until the mid 1980s Anybody remember the Kerry Babies scandal again from the mid 1980s and The moving statues :)) again from the mid 1980s
seanomelb | May 30, 2013, 07:46 PM EDT
What a load of bull Irishwomen drank in pubs in Dublin from the sixties. Women were not allowed to drink in public bars in Ireland,britain,NZ or Australia.The pay rate for women was less than male rates in nearly every country except the Warsaw pact countries. Why use Ireland as a yard stick for what was common practise in most western nations. Women still earn less than their male counterparts.Gladly the world has moved on and women are no longer seen as a chattel.
Maggie47 | May 30, 2013, 02:13 PM EDT
Left Connemara in 1965, we were hanging out in pubs back then. Have you ever been to a Connemara fair there were more women at the bar than men.
SingleDonald | May 30, 2013, 01:23 PM EDT
This is so hard to believe! My young, contemporary Irish ladies were really restricted, in the early 1970's! Happily, baby boomer girls here in the U.S. weren't so restricted. I'm glad this has all changed, and hopefully we will see similar changes in Muslim countries.
Seanmor | May 30, 2013, 11:06 AM EDT
#8: Not only in the Irish state were men allowed to force themselves on their wives, the same was true in the U.S. up to about the late 1960s. By denying woman equal rights, the Free State government was in clear violation of the 1916 Proclamation which mentions "cherishing all the children of the nation equally". By "nation" the Proclamation meant "the whole nation and all its parts" (an náisiún uile agus gach roinn di). It should also be mentioned that the first woman everto win a seat in the British parliament was Countess Marrkievicz who was elected as aSinn Féin .P. in Dublin in Dec., 1918.
USUlsterscot | May 30, 2013, 10:33 AM EDT
Now you need to make a list of things women COULD do in Ireland before it became a papal theocracy in 1916. Like operate motorcars, buy condoms, wear cosmetics, vote, own property, and get a divorce. And not be sent to a Magdalene laundry for showing attitude or being raped by your uncle, that sort of thing. You know, all the rights that British women enjoy but Ireland still can't provide in 2013, because certain American-based publications claiming to be the voice of Ireland like to insist that to be Irish is to be a dogma-addled Catholic, and drum up negative PR against actual progressive policy and the need for completely secular government in Ireland like the Taoiseach is TRYING to do.
oonafitz | May 30, 2013, 10:33 AM EDT
I rarely agree with Irish Central, but I took this in a more positive light, as in , "Look how far we've come.". Here in the Boston area, I (age 63) taught with women not much older than I who were forced to quit when they became pregnant, and there were still a couple around who had had to quit when they got married. Wouldn't want to expose the kids to women who were sexually active, or have to explain about babies!
Tandoori Nights | May 30, 2013, 10:29 AM EDT
The Golden Age. I yearn for a return to these times.
CitizenWhy | May 30, 2013, 09:42 AM EDT
Depended on local custom. In certain parts of Ireland women owned property, even if technically shared with the husband and the husband would not dare cross his wife. And women in pubs were normal in certain parts.The rules of church and state were held with contempt by many people, with some places quietly flaunting them. These rules reflect the neurotic Catholicism of deValera.
ancavker | Dec 18, 2012, 02:20 PM EST
There were women in pubs in the est of Ireland in the 70's. I remember quite clearly being a kid in the 70's, and women were in the pubs.
michaelidaho | Dec 18, 2012, 01:12 PM EST
Women were not allowed to enter pubs in the 1970s? They sure had no problem with this in east Mayo or Leitrim in the 1970s.
phinsman | Dec 17, 2012, 04:58 PM EST
It doesn't surprise me how sexist Ireland was back then, because that's the way the Roman Catholic religion is. Luckily, women have made lots of progression in the past 42 years in Ireland.
STEVENSTAR | Dec 16, 2012, 07:43 PM EST
1970 WAS 42 YEARS AGO...IN IRELAND ITS NOW THE YEAR 2012 AND YOU NEED TO MOVE ON.. JUST THINK HOW IN 42 YEARS AMERICA HAS PROGRESSED OR HASNT WHEN YOU CAMPARE IT TO CHINA :)
anglo-norman | Dec 16, 2012, 05:26 PM EST
I think women were happier back then tbh...now their head is filled with Oprah bullshit & are angry & unhappy. FACT.
Portia777 | Dec 16, 2012, 08:50 AM EST
Life for men and women was totally equal before the Roman church came to"civilise us" and put women in their place. It still goes on in legal matters with "all Irish women deemed feeble minded "in 2012. So feeble minded that they are not allowed to make decisions re their own bodies- men in dresses do this for them. Strong women like Mary Robinson get placed as President where she is no threat to the boys in curls.....and how many people believed we were equal....no all a propaganda game and it worked...until now.
Portia777 | Dec 16, 2012, 08:45 AM EST
Then how come some embassies describe life in Eire for women as worse than Saudi Arabia?
jacersagain | Dec 16, 2012, 02:35 AM EST
How things have changed... er, wel.... Och, chrón mo chroí! Bring back the good oul’ days. Wimmen shoulda justa shad up’a da face. Whassa madder wi’ da, hey? Don’t ya know respect??? That’s wimmen fer ya… no respect fer a real man... 'Tis no won’er the wurrrld’s gone mad. J/K here ladies, really! Really really really…
misneac | Dec 15, 2012, 08:28 PM EST
More bullshit ! Today 40 years these restrictions (and more ) apply in any Islamic state . We are as a nation so far ahead why do you print rubbish articles like this ,trying to portray a totally inaccurate image !
WoundedKnee | Dec 15, 2012, 11:31 AM EST
Change a tire? Oops, still can't.