Between 1969 and 1995, women all over Ireland competed to win the Housewife of the Year, a competition celebrating “cookery, nurturing, and basic household management skills”. Broadcast on RTÉ from 1982, the programmes featured not just the competition itself but also footage of the contestants at home – creating a vivid, nationwide tapestry of ordinary lives. Here, former contestants share our bewilderment at their acceptance of societal strictures and recount their experiences of marriage bars, contraception, Magdalene institutions, financial vulnerability, marital breakdown, and shame.  The film is a poignant, often hilarious, and uplifting story of a generation of resilient women and a country in transition.

Followed by a Q&A with Ciarán Cassidy and former Housewife of the Year contestants, hosted by Sinéad O’Carroll.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

Screening as part of IFI Documentary Festival 2024.

You may also find Stolen, available online as part of the IFI Documentary Festival @Home, interesting.