Miss-representation

Figures

Figure 1.1: Gender inequality responses

Figure 1.2: Chef roles: gender profile of each role

Figure 1.3: Gender profile of head chef role in each work environment

Figure 1.4: Gender profile of pastry chef in each work environment

Figure 1.5: Gender profile of commis chef in each work environment

Figure 4.1: The Daily Mail, 28 March 2017

Figure 4.2: Sia performing in various places – montage of images [online]

Foreword

In 2017, I attended a conference run under the auspices of the Women On Ireland Research Network entitled ‘Women and Irishness’ at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in Waterford city. The theme of the conference was premised on using the centenary of the Easter Rising in Ireland to ask questions of gender, women and femininity and how they intersect with the idea of Irishness. This symposium aimed to bring together current scholarly work critiquing female experiences, how women are represented in culture, media, and socialization through the lens of an Irish experience. Over two packed days, there were panels on topics ranging from sports/leisurewear, porn, sex, sex education, women and ageing, gender in the culinary arts, women in science, to the underrepresentation of sportswomen in the mass media. Keynotes were delivered by Professor Louise Ryan (University of Sheffield), on stories of Irish migrants to London; Professor Ann Fogarty (University College Dublin), on contemporary Irish women’s writing, specifically looking at the writer Eimear McBride and the idea of women and identity within McBride’s work; Dr Máire Leane (University College Cork), on the representation of adolescent female sexuality in Ireland; and Dr Mary Condren (Trinity College Dublin), questioning the depictions of women as angels or sinister temptresses within mythologies.

While not all attendees at the conference were academic or early career scholars, it was to the credit of the organizers that the final panel (on which I participated) spoke to the underrepresentation of women in senior positions within the third-level system in Ireland. There was a very lively discussion regarding the reasons this imbalance still exists and what we need to do to rectify it. Many conferences such as this leave one buzzing with new ideas, thinking of ways to continue research and activism within and outside of the academy, as well feeling the solidarity of spending time among those ←xi | xii→who understand the importance of viewing all issues through a gendered lens. However, the event often fades into memory as more conferences and more challenges arise. This is why I am particularly delighted to see that a publication is now coming from the 2017 ‘Women and Irishness’ event, and even more honoured to have been asked to write a foreword for it. There are many ways of thinking of women and Irishness – oftentimes it is the challenges that Irish women have endured through the last 100 years that are discussed. We often, by necessity, read about the Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalen Laundries, the exclusion of Traveller women, migrant women, working-class women from specific definitions of Irishness. However, other aspects of women and Irishness can and should be unpacked.

Based on detailed surveys, Mary Farrell’s and Yvonne Murphy’s chapter open up the world of chef work and consent respectively. Delving deep into one of the biggest industries in Ireland, Farrell’s original research forefronts the underrepresentation in the industry, especially at senior levels. Murphy’s invaluable research demonstrates that as women mature, they gain a better understanding of and more confidence in concepts of consent. This begs the question of how we need to inculcate this confidence in younger women, so they too can be confident around consent. The never-ending questions around how women are portrayed in the media are central to Brenda Murphy’s essay. Women as commodities, fetishized or hypersexualized, ←xii | xiii→women as victims, as others – the continuing objectification of the female body in the media is impressively drawn out by Murphy.