“\ud One man one job\ud ”\ud : the marriage\ud ban and the employment of women\ud teachers in Irish primary schools

摘要

In 1932, the Irish government, facing an economic downturn, introduced a marriage\udban which required that female primary school teachers were required to resign on\udmarriage. This followed a series of restrictive legislative measures adopted by Irish\udgovernments throughout the 1920s which sought to limit women’s participation in\udpublic life and the public sector. Such a requirement emerged in several countries\udin response to high unemployment and applied principally to women’s white-collar\udoccupations, leading some commentators to argue that it stemmed from a social\udconsensus rather than an economic rationale. Despite opposition to the ban from\udthe Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) on the basis that it was\udunconstitutional, would lead to fewer marriages and that married women were in\udfact more suited to teaching children, it remained in place until 1958. Although the\udban is much referred to as part of the gender ideology that informed legislation in\udthe early years of independent Ireland, the particular history of married women\udteachers has been little researched in the academic context. Over 50 years since the\udrescinding of the ban, this article examines its impact through an analysis of primary\udsources, including government cabinet minutes and the public commentary of the\udINTO and positions this history within the international context.