Employment of Women act 1973

byrne28

Hi,

Does anyone know which minister or department brought in the Employment of Women act 1973?

I've found the act but it doesn't state which Minister brought it in?

jeckle

Fianna Fáil were in Govt until March 1973, when a Labour/Fine Gael coalition took over.

The present Dept of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation was called the Dept of Industry & Commerce back in 1973. Both Patrick Lalor (FF) & Justin Keating (Labour) would have been the Ministers in 1973. This might give you something to go on for further research.

byrne28

Thanks very much for that.

The Act is dated 31st July 1973 at which time Fine Gael/Labour government was in power, it may have been drafted by the previous government though.

Would that department have been responsible for drafting legislation for the Civil service, i was thinking it may have been the Department for Labour but i cant find anything that states that.

Sierra Oscar

In 1970 Fianna Fáil established the Status of Women commission which lead to the creation of the Act. The act was based upon the recommendations of that commission. The act itself was drafted and prepared under Fianna Fáil and was brought through in 1973 by FG & Labour. The Act received cross party support as a result.

byrne28

Thanks very much,

The commission for Status of Women was set up in 1971 when George Colley was Minister for Finance so looks like it was under this Departments remit to bring it in.

I imagine the majority of the work was done while Colley was Minister with Richie Ryan actually getting the bill through while minister for Finance and Public Service.

Thanks for your help, a fine way to spend a sunday:)

byrne28

Apologies commission for status of women was set up in 1970.

later12

Very sad thing about the first Commission of the Status of Women was that only the final report itself survives.

The documents leading up to its final drafting, and all correspondence with the Commission from Irish women, and from Irish women's organisations, or any bodies who gave an input, have all been thrown away. I think that's a shame.

These documents would have been worth preserving from the point of view of social history, I would have thought.

Riskymove

Is that the "The Civil Service [Employment of Married Women] Act 1973"?

if it is then it was about recruitment to civil service so probably intorduced by Minister for Finance of the time