'Change can't be left to chance': tackling Ireland's gender pay gap

The Irish economy is thriving, but it masks an underlying inequality that's still holding back women in the workplace

Any UK or Irish politician voicing in 2019 the opinion that a woman's place is in the home would be condemned. Yet that attitude is still enshrined in the Irish constitution - and it's symptomatic of a wider problem in the country that's holding back women in the workplace, especially in low-paid public service jobs.

Since 1937, despite growing calls for an update, article 41.2 of the the Irish constitution has stated that economic necessity should not force mothers to work "to the neglect of their duties in the home". Last year, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission said the phrase should either be abolished or changed.