Women's Voices in Ireland - by Caitriona Clear (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Women's Voices in Ireland examines the letters and problems sent in by women to two Irish women's magazines in the 1950s and 60s, discussing them within their wider social and historical context. In doing so, it provides a unique insight into one of the few forums for female expression in Ireland during this period.

Although in these decades more Irish women than ever before participated in paid work, trade unions and voluntary organizations, their representation in politics and public and their workforce participation remained low. Meanwhile, women who came of age from the late 1950s experienced a freedom which their mothers and aunts - married or single, in the workplace or the home - had never known. Diary and letters pages and problem pages in Irish-produced magazines in the 1950s and 60s enabled women from all walks of life to express their opinions and to seek guidance on the social changes they saw happening around them.

This book, by examining these communications, gives a new insight into the history of Irish women, and also contributes to the ongoing debate about what women's magazines mean for women's history.

Review Quotes

Clear's well-researched book gives an interesting snapshot of a relatively recent repressed time.
Irish Examiner

This book is successful and significant on a number of levels. It provides a rich and detailed account of popular women's magazines in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s ... The book also provides a much more nuanced account of social and cultural change in Ireland in these two decades adding much to our understandings of modern Irish history and the lives of Irish women in particular. Clear writes in an accessible manner and the inclusion of images from the magazines and the engaging content ensures that this publication will appeal not only to academics and students of history but also to those who 'never thought they were interested in history at all'.
Reviews in History

This book will be of crucial importance in furthering debates around women's lives in twentieth century Ireland ... and add needed archival richness to debates on women's lives since partition.
Journal of Contemporary History

About the Author

Caitriona Clear lectures on European and Irish women's history, the history of poverty and institutions, general political history, and oral history at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. Her most recent book is Social Change and Everyday Life in Ireland 1850-1922 (2007).