MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library



    The Long-term Consequences of the Irish Marriage Bar


    Mosca, Irene (2020) The Long-term Consequences of the Irish Marriage Bar. Economic and Social Review, 51 (1). pp. 1-34. ISSN 0012-9984

    [thumbnail of IreneMosca2022Lon.pdf]
    Preview
    Text
    IreneMosca2022Lon.pdf

    Download (3MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    A Marriage Bar is the requirement that women in certain jobs must leave that job when they marry. Ireland had a Marriage Bar in place until the 1970s. In 2014/2015, women participating in the The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing were asked--for the first time in a nationally representative survey--specific questions about their experience of the Marriage Bar. In this paper, we use the information from the TILDA respondents for two purposes. The first is to investigate the extent of the Marriage Bar in Ireland. Our analysis suggests that the Marriage Bar was widespread and not confined to specific sectors or occupations (such as the civil service). The second purpose is to investigate the long-term consequences of the Marriage Bar. We do so by comparing the outcomes of women who were affected by the Marriage Bar with the outcomes of women who were not affected by the Marriage Bar. Regression analysis shows that women affected by the Marriage Bar have shorter working lives, lower individual income but higher household wealth at present, more children and more educated children. However, there are no statistically significant differences in the current health status of the two groups of women. The differences in long-term outcomes do not appear to be confounded by the endogeneity of marriage, education, employment and occupational choices.
    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: Cite as: Mosca, I. & Wright, R.E. 2020, "The long-term consequences of the irish marriage bar", The Economic and social review, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 1-34.
    Keywords: Marriage; Women;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics, Finance and Accounting
    Item ID: 16094
    Depositing User: Irene Mosca
    Date Deposited: 14 Jun 2022 14:15
    Journal or Publication Title: Economic and Social Review
    Publisher: ESRI
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/16094
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

    Repository Staff Only (login required)

    Item control page
    Item control page

    Downloads

    Downloads per month over past year

    Origin of downloads