ABSTRACT
S Econd wave feminism achieved a significant renegotiation of the Irish gender contract in the 30-year period between the early 1970s and the beginning of the twenty-first century (Connolly 1996; Galligan 1998; Good 2000; Mahon 1995). A range of existing policy arenas were overtly gendered and new issues were brought onto the state agenda. Feminist mobilization set off a gradual increase in female participation in state bodies at all levels as well as the creation of a series of women's policy agencies (Galligan 1998; Mahon 1995, 1999). The case of job training demonstrates the limitations to the success story of the Irish women's movement. In Ireland, job training was a policy field that responded more slowly and less consistently to feminist pressure than other areas, such as education, family law, or health. This chapter shows that after the early 1970s and until the mid-1990s neither the autonomous women's movement nor women's policy agencies succeeded in maintaining a gender focus in training policy debates in Ireland.
