A review of 'Women of the House: Women's Household Work in Ireland 1922-1961. Discourses, Experiences and Memories by Caitriona Clear'

Abstract

This study is based on exhaustive research in government departmental correspondence and reports, folklore records, newspapers, handbooks, periodicals and prescriptive literature, as well as on the personal testimonies of over forty individuals, male and female. Hence, it is a study not only of Irish women's household work, but also of the intricacies of Irish society as a whole in the period between the foundation of the state until the early 1960s when the accelerated availability of electricity and running water arguably reduced women's household workloads, but before the more radical questioning of women's social role gained currency. The title - Women of the House - has been carefully chosen to reflect the depth and range of experience of those many married and single women who 'had primary responsibility for the daily maintenance of a dwelling and the lives of its members.'