https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd-61UV_TLk

http://vimeo.com/111658271

AUSTERITY

‘…no matter which measurement of poverty is used, Ireland lies in the worst third of the EU 27 for its performance in tackling poverty and for income inequality.” p.95

…despite some progress since the 1990s, there is now a clear rise in consistent poverty over 2008-9… The data for relative income inequality show that the increasing equality often celebrated is illusory; rather, income inequality is deeply embedded and the Celtic Tiger did little to shift it.” p.98.

“Since the 1980s… the bottom decile’s share increased by a mere 0.11 per cent, while that of the top decile increased by a very significant 1.34 per cent. [Social Justice Ireland] conclude that ‘the gap between the top 10 per cent of households and all the rest of society has widened over these years.” p.99

“…while the crisis has hit all classes, Ó Riain (2009) observes a disastrous collapse in working-class employment. There are growing differences between the position of those with third-level education and those without.” p.101

“Those for whom the principal economic status of the head of the household is home duties (primarily female carers and lone parents), unemployed and low paid workers, comprise almost three quarters of poor households…

The Celtic Tiger period saw a significant redistribution of income from workers to businesses… in the 2001-06 period it fell to 56.4 per cent of GDP, from 78 per cent in the 1960-70 period.” p.102.

“…Unemployment leaves people stressful and unhappy… loss of self-esteem, fatalism and loss of control over daily life.

[There are] huge implications of long-term unemployment, with people working through a cycle of loss similar to bereavement (disbelief, anger, depression, acceptance) eventually adjusting to a life cycle of unemployment.” p.104

[Women] are the real losers [since 2008], bearing the brunt of cuts in public services, on which they are more reliant.

“Women do 86 per cent of child supervision, 69 per cent of playing with and reading to children, 82 per cent of care to adults, 80 per cent of cooking, 86 per cent of cleaning and 70 per cent of shopping.” p.105

Poverty compounds this inequality of care.

Closing down of Dissent - Attacks on Equality in IrelandEquality Bodies – closed down or with reduced Budgets

Combat Poverty Agency –closed 2008 incorporated into the Department of Social Protection Equality Authority – 2009 43% cut and now being merged with the Human Rights Commission Women’s Health Council – closed 2009  Crisis Pregnancy Agency – closed and merged with the Health Service Executive  Irish Human Rights Commission -Budget cuts since 2009 and merged with Equality Authority Equality for Women Measure - co-funded by EU Operational Programme ---budget partly transferred out

of this area and now under Dept. For Enterprise, Trade and Employment  National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) _Closed 2009  Gender Equality desk at the Department (Ministry) of Justice, Equality and Law Reform – Desk Closed

2009 Gender Equality Unit – Department of Education – Closed early 2000s Higher Education Equality Unit – UCC -Closed and merged into Higher Education Authority (early 2000s) National Women’s Council of Ireland -158 member organisations- budget cuts of 15% in 2008-11 and

38% in 2012 Traveller Education cutbacks 2011 and 2012 – all 42 Visiting teaches for Travellers removed*  Rape Crisis Network Ireland – core Health Authority Funding removed 2011

SAFE Ireland network of Women’s’ Refuges - core Health Authority Funding removed 2011

People With Disabilities in Ireland's (PWDI) - funding removed 2012

National Carers’ Strategy – abandoned 2009

Kathleen Lynch, Equality Studies UCD School of Social Justice 53

Social Reproduction

Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of things.

Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

Social Reproduction

Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of things.

Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied widely and that variation has been central to the organization of gender relations and gender inequality.

Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

Social Reproduction

Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of things.

Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied widely and that variation has been central to the organization of gender relations and gender inequality.

From this point of view, societal reproduction includes not only the organization of production but the organization of social reproduction, and the perpetuation of gender as well as class relations.

Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

Gender and CaringNotes on Lynch and Lyons, ‘The Gendered Order of Caring’ in Ursula Barry (ed) Where Are We

Now? New Feminist Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Ireland (Dublin: Tasc, 2008)

There are deep gender inequalities in the doing of care and emotional work that operate to the advantage of men.

It is women’s unwaged labour and related domestic labour that frees men up to exercise control in the public sphere of politics, the economy and culture.

… there is a moral imperative on women to do care work that does not apply equally to men ; a highly gendered moral code impels women to do the greater part of primary caring, with most believing they have no choice in the matter.

The Irish government collects data on unpaid caring within households in

1. the Census

2. the Quarterly Household Survey (QNHS).

Within the Census, care is defined as being given by ‘persons aged 15yrs and over who provide regular unpaid help for a friend or family member with a long-term illness, health problem or disability (including problems due to age). P.167-8

The way care is defined in the Census excludes what constitutes a major category of care work, that of the ordinary, everyday care of children (unless the child has a recognised disability). Data on the care of children is compiled in the QNHS, however, and is also available through the European Community Household Panel (ECPH) survey. The focus in all three is on the hours of work involved in caring so we do not know the nature and scope of the caring involved. P.168

According to the [2006] Census there are less than 150,000 people, 5 per cent of the adult population in unpaid care work (mostly with adults) of whom 61 per cent are women and 39 per cent are men.

However, when we measure all types of caring activity, as has been done in the European Community household Panel (ECPH) we see that there are 1 million people who do caring who are not named in the census.

Even though it is no doubt unintentional, the failure to collect data on hours spent on child care work in the Census, means that child care, which is the major form of care work in Irish society, is no counted in terms of work hours.

… women are almost five times as likely to work long care hours than is the case for men.

Women spend much more time at care work than men, even when they are employed.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/exhibition-documents-40-year-fight-for-contraception-and-abortion-1.1995341