​The Mother and Baby column in a 1950 edition of Model Housekeeping magazine described key developmental milestones in baby’s first year, from smiling to walking. Connections were made between mother’s performance and baby’s optimum development, conveying the importance of mothers’ child-rearing work: ‘Mother’s job during this first year is to see that baby has a good start – she can do it if she gives him much of her time, all her love and care, and strict attention to practical details’.¹ Nurturing a baby and toddler was presented as requiring dedicated, effective care, that placed both physical and psychological demands on mothers. 
 
Using the work of motherhood from 1945 to 1974 as a framework, reveals the everyday contribution of mothers to life in Ireland. Exploring mothers’ work also presents the wider social and cultural context of the period, enabling a stronger understanding of life in Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century. The marriage bar, which was in place until 1973, represented the official discrimination mothers faced in relation to paid employment. Contrastingly, the work of motherhood constituted the unofficial restrictions they encountered. Media discourse surrounding working mothers discussed the difficulties in managing both sets of responsibilities. How mothers’ work shaped women’s relationship with paid employment is evident in a 1971 ESRI survey. The female participants - single, married and widowed - prioritised ‘no children’ as the preferred conditions for married women working. In addition to childcare responsibilities, managing housework ranked highly in the drawbacks participants perceived to working outside the home.²

Mary Maher, first women’s editor of the Irish Times, founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, and mother of two, published an advice book for mothers in 1973 which began by defining child-rearing responsibilities as a ‘job’.³ In the introduction, Maher noted increased attention on mothers’ care of their children over the preceding thirty years. Since the mid-twentieth century, child-rearing advice had featured child development theories, originating from World War 2 studies by medical professionals on motherhood’s impact on children. Internationally, psychoanalysts such as D.W. Winnicott and paediatricians like Dr Spock became mainstream through their radio programmes and best-selling books. Winnicott advised mothers that how they managed their child-rearing responsibilities would have a lasting impact: ‘…the foundation of the health of the human being is laid by you in the baby’s first weeks and months’.⁴ Former Irish minister for health Dr Noel Browne reflected this in 1971, describing mothers as ‘fashioning from babyhood the total end-product of the mature adult personality’.⁵
 
However, this ‘fashioning’ of an ‘adult’ was not the only work mothers were expected to do. Mary Maher explored the scope of mothering, estimating the time spent on various jobs by mothers of new babies, showing that in addition to basic tasks such as feeding, mothers needed time for psychological duties such as rocking, considered essential to emotional development. This extensive analysis included household responsibilities which Maher claimed mothers undertook along with rearing work due to ‘cultural conditioning’.⁶
 
Drawing on child-rearing advice literature published in Ireland over the period, such as Mary Maher’s You and Your Baby, and women’s magazines, provides insight to the wide-ranging work associated with mothering. In analysing this work the impact of modernisation and consumerism becomes apparent. Advertisements in popular culture publications reveal how mothers’ work, and their position as consumers, were perceived.
 
Advertising for baby formula milk features a recognition of the psychological aspect of mothers’ feeding responsibilities, combined with references to medical professional approval, scientific advances, and modernising processes. Emotional reassurances of mothers who struggled with breastfeeding sought to convince the target market of the product’s suitability as a substitute. A 1959 Cow & Gate Milk Food advertisement provides an example of this. Alongside an image of a mother and baby, the text conveys the sensitive nature of mothers’ critical feeding decisions: ‘A pity she cannot feed him herself, but she can, and will, give him the food that she knows will lay the foundation of good health for the years that lie ahead’.⁷
 
Over ten years later, an advertisement for SMA formula milk similarly endeavoured to reassure mothers that the product enabled them to fulfil their vital duties while bottle-feeding: ‘even though she couldn’t breast-feed, she was able to give her baby a healthy start with S-M-A. Like mother's own milk, easy-to-mix S-M-A is a complete food containing everything necessary for healthy growth, including all important Vitamin D for bones that grow straight and strong.’⁸
 
Using science to reassure mothers that this option was the best choice also appears in  advertisements for babies’ first solid food products. Neave’s baby food promoted the ‘digestibility’ of their ‘pre-cooked, scientifically blended cereal food’.⁹ An emphasis on professional validation is evident in companies such as Neave’s and Heinz Baby Food publishing guidebooks created by medical experts to alleviate ‘the doubts and anxieties that beset every mother’.¹⁰
 
Examining the work of motherhood from 1945 to 1974 presents an opportunity to document the extensive range of duties assigned to mothers through their traditional gender role. Notably, in researching this topic, it is not only the details of mothers’ domestic tasks that come to light. The interconnection between modernisation, consumerism and the work of motherhood becomes apparent in a variety of ways. The assortment of child-rearing guidance material targeted at mothers, from magazine problem pages to advice books, conveys the potential of the women’s consumer power. An emphasis on mothers’ choices in how they carry out this essential work, and the products they employ to assist them, dominate the sources. Advertisements from the period demonstrate an awareness of the impact of mothering on children, and the adult they would eventually become. Drawing on scientific and medical developments, these advertisements present the modern Irish mother as concerned with the latest advances. The prevalence of branded child-rearing guide books written by experts suggests aspirations for proficient childrearing work. Studying mothers’ work in Ireland, reveals the complexity of the women’s role, while providing greater insight to the modernising social and cultural context of the period.
 
Author's contact details: Aviv Corrigan (UCD) [email protected]

Aviv got a special commendation at the 2025 Annual Conference 
​

¹ ‘Mother and Baby,’ Model Housekeeping, April 1950, 395.

² Brendan M. Walsh, and Annette O'Toole, Women and Employment in Ireland: Results of a National Survey (Dublin, 1973), p. 73, p. 83.

³ Mary Maher, You and Your Baby (Dublin, 1973), p. 1.

⁴ D.W. Winnicott, The Child, the Family and the Outside World (London,1991), p. 26.

⁵ Dr Noel Browne, ‘Monks and Mothers,’ Irish Times, 10 February 1971, 11.

⁶ Maher, You and Your Baby, p. 144.

⁷ ‘Cow & Gate Milk Food advertisement’, Irish Housewife, 1959, 22.

⁸ ‘SMA advertisement’, You and Your Baby, A Family Doctor Publication by the Irish Medical Association in conjunction with the British Medical Association, 1970, 44.

⁹ Woman’s Life, 26 November 1955, 22.

 ¹⁰Woman’s Way, 19 May 1965, 56.

Place-based policies are back in vogue across Europe. Faced with widening regional inequality and increasing political fragmentation, these policies are used to tackle poverty by directing public investment into struggling regions.¹ Yet economists have long been sceptical of place-based approaches, with critics judging them at best ineffective, and at worst damaging, especially when they distort the location of economic activity.² 

I revisit this debate using the example of an early place-based policy, the Congested Districts Board of Ireland 1891–1909. This policy was designed to address poverty and economic underdevelopment in the west of Ireland by implementing a range of schemes that aligned with local economic context and need. In this rural part of Ireland, the policy focused primarily on agricultural development, but also invested in skills, local infrastructure, and industry. Yet it has been viewed critically by many historians as a largely ineffective agency and part of the campaign to ‘Kill Home Rule with Kindness’.³ Using newly digitised and geo-coded data, and modern econometric techniques, I find that the policy significantly reduced rural poverty, improved living standards, and modernised agriculture in the poorest parts of Ireland.

Those ‘Left Behind’
Irish socio-economic conditions changed dramatically over the second half of the nineteenth century, with living standards converging with many of Ireland’s international peers. That said, many, predominantly western areas, continued to be ensnared by local development traps and were increasingly left behind. 

In these areas, farming was the main industry, yet most farms were tiny, fragmented, and poorly drained. In some areas, crop rotation – an innovation thousands of years old – was still not widely practiced, while livestock was poorly bred and prone to disease. Although many people emigrated from these areas, those that were left behind often relied on seasonal agricultural work in Britain or on remittances from family members abroad to make ends meet.

These were the areas that the government deemed ‘congested’, not because they were densely populated, but because too many people lived on poor quality land.

A Policy Dismissed?
The Congested Districts Board was established in 1891 to tackle these problems and was granted extensive powers to develop agriculture, fisheries, home industries, and any other project that might improve living conditions. Eligible regions were determined using land value thresholds, ensuring that only those most destitute areas received support. The Board also recruited a cross-section of Irish and British elites with expertise in economic development, allowing it to tailor schemes to local economic conditions and geographical constraints. Consequently, around 70% of the Board’s budget was devoted to agricultural development and reorganisation schemes.

To assess the impact of this policy, I digitised and geo-coded every unique CDB investment between 1891 and 1909, drawn from the Board’s annual reports. This data was initially linked to the District Electoral Division level, meaning it could readily be aggregated to various other geographies and data, including Poor Law Union (PLU) statistics on poverty, public health, as well as agricultural production.

My main finding is clear: the Congested Districts Board significantly reduced poverty.

Across various modelling specifications, higher CDB investment was associated with lower poverty scores at a PLU level. Matching PLUs that received investment to a comparable set of PLUs, I find that a one standard deviation increase in investment reduced poverty by about 0.22 standard deviations. Put more intuitively, the programme lifted roughly three people out of poverty for every £1 spent. 

So why did the policy work?
The answer lies in the CDB’s focus on agricultural modernisation and restructuring. The evidence suggests that the policy accelerated the transition from tillage-based to pasture-based agriculture. Chiefly, there was a:

1. Decline in subsistence crops – CDB investment significantly reduced oat and grass output, stable crops of poorer households.
2. Rise in livestock –the number of cattle, swine, and poultry increased per holding.⁴ 
3. Increase in agricultural capital – using higher resolution data at the District Electoral Division data, DEDs that received investment experienced a 26% increase in the number of farmstead and out-office buildings.

What Broader Lessons Emerge for Today’s Policymakers?
First, the results challenge the view that place-based policies are inherently ineffective. Under the right conditions, they can produce meaningful improvements in living standards.

Second, design matters enormously. The CDB worked not because it poured money into poor regions, but because it aligned interventions with local economic context. The Board sought to understand why people were poor, prioritised bread-and-butter issues, and delivered projects that were accessible to the population. It was not about bringing the Sheffield Steelworks to the west, it was a strategic intervention that intended to better equip individuals with the means to escape poverty.

Rethinking the Verdict of History
The Congested Districts Board was far from perfect. Its resources were limited relative to the scale of poverty it faced, and not all its initiatives succeeded. But this new quantitative evidence suggests it did help weaken local development traps and improve the lives of some of the poorest communities in Ireland at the time.
At a time when policymakers are once again grappling with regional inequality, this natural experiment of history offers a useful lesson. Place-based policy is not a silver bullet – but when it is well informed and targeted to local conditions, it can make a real difference.

Author's contact details: Tiarnán Heaney (QUB) [email protected]

Tiarnán got a special commendation at the 2025 Annual Conference 

¹ V. Tselios and A. Rodrígiez-Pose, ‘Can decentralisation help address poverty and social exclusion in Europe?’, Territory, Politics, Governance, 12:8 (2024), 1134-57.
² E.L. Glaeser and J.D. Gottlieb, ‘The Economics of Place-Making Policies’, Harvard Institute of Economic Research, Discussion Paper, no. 2166 (2008).
³ See C. Breathnach, The Congested Districts Board, 1891-1923 (Dublin, 2005) and E. O’Halpin, The Decline of the Union: British Government in Ireland 1892-1920 (Dublin, 1987).
⁴ The number of horses reared for leisure purposes declined significantly in treated areas, likely owning to the CDB’s purchase of large estates and the subsequent decline of the landlord class.

Legislation, which is enacted at national level, has the potential to alter the course of individual lives. Defining the boundaries of acceptable conduct in both public and private life, its provisions often reflect society’s values. This principle is particularly relevant to the Republic of Ireland’s Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act 1974 - the first act to address the issue of equal pay for Irish women. While it represented social progress for women workers, the act’s true value would lie in its ability to address individual cases of workplace discrimination. The proceedings of equal pay claims raised before equality officers during the 1970s and 1980s provide insight into how the legislation was interpreted and ultimately its efficacy in real-world situations. In the years following the act, ground-breaking legal cases impacting women’s rights, such as the 1976 de Burca case were ‘tales of bravery’ where claimants ‘faced the daunting prospect of taking on the State and its powerful institutions’.¹ However, equal pay cases, while less renowned, also demonstrated instances of such bravery whereby workers confronted employers (by whom they were often still employed) to fight for their employment rights, with little guarantee of success.

In 1979 the Federated Workers’ Union of Ireland requested the investigation of an equal pay claim in an IT company. A data preparation supervisor maintained that she performed like work to a male production control supervisor, and that she was, therefore, entitled to equal pay under the 1974 act. The case saw considerable dispute arise between the union and the company, particularly concerning the complex work involved and the company’s job descriptions. The company’s central contention was that the work performed by the two employees was not equal in value. They emphasised the superior skill, ‘mental effort’ and decision-making required by the male employee, arguing that it involved a greater ‘variety of functions’ than the applicant's. These included tasks such as scheduling and management duties, ‘customer liaison’ work, new project assessments and assigning job priorities. The union argued that the company’s account of the male employee’s responsibilities was ‘theoretical rather than related to reality’, highlighting key aspects whereby his actual responsibilities did not match company descriptions. They maintained that he supervised six employees and two trainees rather than the eight staff and one trainee the company described. Duties attributed to him such as setting job priorities and vetting new projects were, in fact, performed by the general manager and he was ‘not responsible for scheduling to the extent stated in the company’s submission’. Similarly, client interaction required by the production supervisor role was not, according to the union, as significant as the company insisted.

The union emphasised aspects of the claimant’s role making her work equal in value to her male comparator, including supervisory duties over four staff members working night shifts. While she was often required to stay ‘later than normal’ preparing work for these staff, she did ‘not claim overtime’. Whilst transferring data to tapes she often simultaneously completed scheduling and supervisory duties. She possessed specialist technical skills, for instance often constructing ‘a special card’, ‘a tedious and skilful job’ necessary when outside organisations were contracted with punching jobs. She trained staff directly rather than merely scheduling training as the company claimed. A key aspect of the union’s case lay in the fact that the production control supervisor’s job was previously held by a woman and assigned the same grade as the data preparation supervisor role. However, the company responded that the job had since changed, emphasising that at that time the company handled ‘a very limited number of packages’ and that there was little client interaction or scheduling required.

The equality officer noted the ‘wide difference of opinion’ existing between the company and union. While they disputed some company claims concerning the male production control supervisor’s role, they recognised his ‘overall responsibility…for all the work carried out in his section’. Ultimately, they found that his role was ‘more demanding in terms of responsibility and mental effort’ than the claimant’s. Since it was not ‘like work’ under section 3 of the 1974 act, the claimant was not entitled to equal pay.² Regardless of the decision, this case demonstrates the challenges of applying equality legislation in complex, professional environments involving overlapping roles and responsibilities. Equal pay cases often saw the claimant’s skills devalued by employers. In this instance the company exaggerated the male employee’s responsibilities making it difficult for the equality officer to realistically assess the actual tasks performed. Meanwhile, the claimant’s diligence and technical and supervisory skills received a lesser focus. Nebulous management responsibilities were often cited by employers and were difficult to contest. The case thus calls into question simple assumptions that professional or highly-skilled women had less need of equal pay protections than women in less advantageous situations.


¹ Bacik and Rogan, Legal Cases that changed Ireland, p. 1.

² NAI, 2001/61/82, Equal Pay Recommendations of Equality Officers, EP 10/80.

Author's contact details: Suzanne Jobling (QUB) [email protected]

Suzanne got a special commendation at the 2021 Annual Conference