This is an ambitious book, seeking to establish in a comprehensive way the position of women in Irish society today and consider their prospects for the future. It therefore covers areas as diverse as concepts of womanhood, the position of women in the economy, in work, in the family, the attitudes of the church, the role of the media, and the emergence of public discussion of issues such as domestic violence.

It is packed with information, some of it already readily available, some less accessible. It provides a very valuable resource for those seeking statistical and other quantitative information about the position of women, especially in economic life. It will undoubtedly be a must on various third-level courses dealing with women's studies.

For example, O'Connor analyses thoroughly the processes through which women's position in low-paid employment has been perpetuated, pointing out that there were two entry grades to the civil service for non-graduates, one with typing and one without.

Clerk-typists (overwhelmingly female) were recruited as "clerical assistants" with virtually no promotional prospects, while "clerical officers" (normally men who did not have typing skills) entered a grade with prospects.

O'Connor's treatment of women's relationship to the church is more nuanced than is often the case with feminist writers. She writes: "Within a society which is increasingly materialistic and individualistic the moral integrity of the position of women as unpaid workers within the home cannot be legitimated within current economic thinking. The church does provide a potential discourse within which women's lives of service and love have meaning."

It is in this area - the challenge of valuing the work done by women both at home and in the workforce - that O'Connor is at her best. She points out that society seems reluctant - and it may prove impossible - to set a monetary value on the "love labour" through which women forge the bonds, not only of family, but of the broader community. Yet it is essential to the construction of a society.

There is a wealth of detail in the book, and it draws widely on a host of sources (the list of references runs to 36 pages). But this very wealth of detail, combined with the meticulous sourcing of all references in the body of the text, makes for a rather dense read. O'Connor's scrupulous deference to her sources can interfere with the fluency of the writing.

This also has the effect of obscuring the author's own often incisive insights, so that what should merit a lengthy discussion is reduced to an almost throwaway remark.

One example comes at the end of the opening chapter, when O'Connor writes: "It can be suggested that it is the acceptance by mothers of, for example, lone parenthood, which poses one of the most fundamental challenges to the position of working class men in society."

This is a very important issue, and also challenges the view that young women are primarily encouraged to have children outside of marriage by generous social welfare benefits. But it is lost in the repetition of the views of a variety of other writers on a range of topics in this introductory chapter.

In a later chapter she comments: "Within an Irish cultural tradition the family is an important symbol of collective identity, unity and security - although interestingly many aspects of the lifestyle which we see as peculiarly `Irish' (e.g. pub-culture, the non-sexually based sociability captured by the concept of `craic') take place outside the family setting."

I would have liked to see her expand on this, perhaps indulging in a little speculation. But there is a certain reluctance to speculate in this book - perhaps the result of 30 years in the discipline of sociology.

So, despite - or perhaps because of - the impressive array of information which the author has amassed, the book leaves the reader with a certain sense of being overwhelmed by trees, unable to see the contours of the wood.

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