Points of view

What would you write in a graduation card to yourself, age 21, from your current perspective? Would it be the usual “The World Is Your Oyster” or “The Adventure Begins” or even the Dr Seuss-inspired “Oh The Places You’ll Go!” My advice to myself at that age? After...

Women who start their own businesses say freedom, better work-life balance and autonomy are the main reasons they take the plunge into self-employment. Despite its glamorous reputation, entrepreneurship is a high-risk gamble financially, personally, emotionally and...

When it comes to working and having children, it’s more difficult for women to climb to the top of their profession. From the gender pay and promotions gap, the childcare and domestic juggle and the women’s health gap, many structural and societal barriers are put in...

When you are working and raising young children, you have little time to think about your own health or your physical and mental needs. It is an oversight that is reinforced by social and cultural messages that encourage women to subsume their needs for others. We...

Childcare is Ireland’s impossible equation. No matter how much you try to solve for X – working from home, asking relatives for help, using crèches, childminders and availing of State subsidies and payments – it seems designed to break you financially and emotionally....

Women are financially disadvantaged throughout their lives. From paying the 'pink tax' – more for similar clothing and toiletries compared to men – to the gender pay gap, pensions and inheritance gaps, it’s much harder for women to attain and maintain personal wealth....

Congratulations! You got the big promotion you’ve always wanted. It was a hard slog, but you were focused, worked hard to meet the company’s goals and directed your team well. You’ve made the great leap from manager to leader. Now what? If you’re a new leader or...

The eyeroll says it all. You’re in another meeting with that manager who loves meetings about meetings. She’s waffling on again, and your colleagues are failing to contain their disdain; it’s all nail-biting, clock-watching, side-eye glancing and leg jiggling. As...

Many moons ago, I worked at a place that had a novel way of celebrating women. The top guy wore pink socks (possibly the same pair) for a week. To be fair, the company was raising funds for a women’s charity, but as a woman, I would have preferred better working...

“We used to be known as the land of the free and the home of the brave; and now we’re the land of the fearful and home of the hateful,” says Jim Noone, who works at a research university in the United States. Like many working in American academia, Jim and his wife...