Women’s working lives

“I joined straight from school because my mother told me to,” she jokes. “We did what our mothers told us to do and they thought the bank was the best job in the world.”

Marrying and having two children in her 20s and one in her 30s, she rose through the ranks, becoming a branch manager in Kinsale. She now works at the bigger St Patrick's Street branch in Cork city.

“For me personally, I never applied for a job or looked for promotion unless I felt very comfortable that I could actually do the job. That’s probably a female thing . . . I think women look at how the role will affect their lives too, how it will fit with family. They factor all of that in whereas I think men feel more confident.”

She says she and her husband co-ordinated childcare using creches, minders and family support.After 34 years of working, she thinks things have balanced out. "A testament to that would be my marriage which is still there 30 years later. My children are still talking to me and we still have a laugh."
– (In conversation with Joanne Hunt)