Balancing Act: Irish Women Want it All… As Long As It Doesn’t Interfere With Our Private Lives

Over the past few decades, Irish women have proved time and time again that we have what it takes to succeed in a professional environment. Every day thousands of us beat our competition, seal major deals and make money. We’ve got it going on and we’re not afraid who knows it.

However, according to a new study today while we want the high-flying careers, we don’t want them at the cost of our private lives.

The Irish Times reports that new research from Accenture has revealed that Irish women (and men) believe that they can “have it all” when it comes to career and family, although we’re not happy if our careers conflict with our private lives.

Defining Success surveyed more than 4,000 business people in 33 countries and found that 70 per cent of Irish women believed that work-life balance was most important when it came to defining their success.

Just over half of the women questioned as part of the survey admitted that they were satisfied with their jobs, in stark contrast to men who were less satisfied.

We start having trouble when our jobs begin to interfere with our private lives

While the vast majority of us are happy with our current employment, those who were unhappy stated that they felt underpaid, tired and burned out and noted that there were no opportunities for advancement or growth.

Interestingly enough both men and women said that they regularly worked during paid time off and on weekends. Checking emails was the main work-related thing that they did, however less than 34 per cent of women consider themselves workaholics.

When asked to describe a good working environment, both sexes used the word “rewarding” and when asked to describe a bad working environment, both sexes said a place where their work goes unnoticed.

Paula Neary, a senior executive with Accenture, stated that the results of the survey showed what was seen on the ground: that women want careers but not at the cost of their private lives.

“For women it is more important that they get the balance... they want to know that they don’t have to sacrifice it,” said Ms Neary.