By Sarah Arnold
Published in Women's History Review, January 2026.
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Abstract

This article examines how minority language status and gender shape the identities and experiences of women working in Irish language broadcasting in Ireland between the 1970s and 2020s. It considers how women negotiate the dual minoritisation of being minority language speakers and women working in broadcasting. Drawing on interviews with ten women, at different career stages, the article identifies three key themes. First, women benefitted from the expansion of Irish language broadcasting especially after the establishment of Irish language television in the 1990s, finding career paths outside of those commonly available to Irish speaking women. Second, women championed Irish language broadcasting, as it sustains Irish language communities. They saw the provision and funding of it as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion issue, more so than gender. Finally, some women were reluctant to suggest gender inequality in Irish language broadcasting but paradoxically relayed personal experiences of gender inequality especially as mothers in work, and structural issues related to gendered pay disparity. While the issues of pay disparity and women’s care roles are prominent in scholarship on media work, there has, to date, been little examination of how gender intersects with minority group status in Ireland. This article addresses that gap.