A new award-winning documentary, ‘Housewife of the Year’, reaches local cinemas later this month.

It tells the story of how Ireland saw women through the unique lens of a televised competition, once described as “The Rose of Tralee for mammies”.

Between 1969 and 1995, women all over Ireland competed for the coveted title sponsored by Calor Gas and the show was broadcast on RTÉ from 1982, hosted by Gay Byrne.

They were judged on “cookery, nurturing and basic household management skills”.

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Some of the stories of the women who took part relate a common experience – the narrowness of a society that expected them to have only one role: motherhood.

With a marriage bar, that meant they had to give up employment in many areas as soon as they wed, and with no access to contraception, they were trapped.

Many of the women, needless to say, had exceptionally big families.........

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