ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the various studies which provided the empirical data for the book, as well as key methodological information for each study, including sampling, and data collection procedures. The initial study carried out in 1975 focused on attitudes towards the role and status of women in Ireland, with particular reference to employment status of married women. The focus on married women’s employment status was chosen due to their very low participation rate at the time of the research, which began in 1973. The initial 1975 study was followed by several subsequent studies. The first of these was carried out in 1978 in the context of an Irish nationwide survey of the quality of working life which was part of an eight-nation harmonised survey of subjective social indicators, sponsored by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, in the then eight member nations of the European Community.
