ABSTRACT
A feminist agenda accompanied the struggle for Irish women's suffrage from 1908 to 1916. The deprivation of rights of women was accompanied by a culture that venerated woman as wife and mother, the touchstone of the family, and the temporal exemplification of Mary the Mother of God. In 1986 the European Economic Community issued the Fourth Equality Directive, which called for equal treatment for men and women in occupational social security schemes, compelling Ireland to bring its policies in line with Europe's. The movement to place an anti-abortion law in the Constitution can be attributed to, among other things, the rise of the radical wing of the women's movement, which generated a reaction among conservative religious groups. The issue of divorce had been lurking on the social agenda for some time as a series of demographic and social changes occurred in Ireland. The report's evaluation of women in the workplace showed marginal to significant improvement.
