The mission of the Economic and Social Research Institute is to advance evidencebased policymaking that supports economic sustainability and social progress in Ireland. ESRI researchers apply the highest standards of academic excellence to challenges facing policymakers, focusing on 12 areas of critical importance to 21 st century Ireland.The Institute was founded in 1960 by a group of senior civil servants led by Dr T. K. Whitaker, who identified the need for independent and in-depth research analysis to provide a robust evidence base for policymaking in Ireland.Since then, the Institute has remained committed to independent research and its work is free of any expressed ideology or political position. The Institute publishes all research reaching the appropriate academic standard, irrespective of its findings or who funds the research.The quality of its research output is guaranteed by a rigorous peer review process. ESRI researchers are experts in their fields and are committed to producing work that meets the highest academic standards and practices.The work of the Institute is disseminated widely in books, journal articles and reports. ESRI publications are available to download, free of charge, from its website. Additionally, ESRI staff communicate research findings at regular conferences and seminars.The ESRI is a company limited by guarantee, answerable to its members and governed by a Council, comprising 14 members who represent a cross-section of ESRI members from academia, civil services, state agencies, businesses and civil society. The Institute receives an annual grant-in-aid from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to support the scientific and public interest elements of the Institute's activities; the grant accounted for an average of 30 per cent of the Institute's income over the lifetime of the last Research Strategy. The remaining funding comes from research programmes supported by government departments and agencies, public bodies and competitive research programmes.Further information is available at www.esri.ie.
During the course of the nineteenth century the topography of female education in Ireland was transformed from a panoply of mainly urban free-market academies and philanthropic initiatives into a broad-based, gender neutral, state-funded national system for primary education that spread unevenly across the island. The result was transformative for girls. At a stroke primary education was widely available and democratised. Secondary schooling for girls also expanded during the period, with female colleges and academies expanding and diversifying across the century. By the end of the century most children received some form, however limited, of basic schooling.1 The radical effect of this expansion of education and literacy has been widely debated, and among historians of women this widened access to education has been discussed with both approval and suspicion in equal measure. Progressive narratives depict the second half of the nineteenth century as a period of significant change for women, when state support for female schools and colleges saw a corresponding rise in females' access to university, pursuit of the professions, political engagement and a nascent suffrage movement. At the same time, female education during the nineteenth century was admittedly and purposefully differentiated from the purpose and prestige of male education, focused at least rhetorically if not actually, on the idealisation of the domestic feminine world of wife and mother.2 Since the inauguration of feminist history, there has been a persistent tension between the progressive narrative of widening access and enfranchisement against a cultural critique of the narrowed content, quality and purpose of female education.In part, this historiographical tendency is an understandable consequence of the social concerns of feminist academics in the 1970s and 1980s. Concurrent with Irish feminist political agitation, biographies and celebratory school histories crafted during this period critiqued past and current inequalities within society.3 Historian Margaret O hÓgartaigh termed the expansion of female secondary education at the beginning of the twentieth century 'a quiet revolution' but also observed that the females who benefited from better access to higher education were those who already had considerable financial resources at their disposal. Upon entering university and staking
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.