Women of the house

"The picture often painted of Irish women who were not in the paid workforce in the first four decades of Irish independence, was one of narrow, optionless lives, ceaseless drudgery, and severe subordination." "Focusing on the kind of women who would not as a rule have employed household help - lower-middle class and working-class women; those on medium to small farms, this study shows that the setting, nature and meaning of household work changed gradually from one decade to the next."--Jacket.