Rathmullan woman Margaret Carton and her daughter Kate are helping to shine a light on Irish women’s history in an award-winning documentary, Housewife of the Year.
The thought-provoking film, in selected cinemas now, visits 10 women who took part in the popular Housewife of the Year contest which ran from 1968-1995.
The ‘Rose of Tralee’ style contest judged married women on their cookery skills, housekeeping and personality.
Margaret Carton was put forward by her local Irish Countrywomen’s Association branch in 1986. Originally from Offaly, she joined the ICA to get to know women in the Rathmullan community.
To her amazement, Margaret won the regional competition in Donegal Town.
To her relief, she didn’t win the overall prize.
“I would have to go around giving cookery demonstrations, I was happy not to land myself in that situation,” Margaret tells Donegal Daily.
Through archive footage and interviews, Housewife of the Year unveils the reality of life for women in Ireland at the time. The marriage bar, ban on contraception and Magdalene Laundries were unspoken on the stage but dominated many of the contestants’ lives.
When filmmaker Ciaran Cassidy of Little Wing contacted Margaret, she wondered why she was chosen at all.
“I had a different sort of a life. I never felt discriminated against as a woman,” Margaret said.
“I was asked a lot about whether I was a women’s liber, I never felt the need to be. I never felt in any way discriminated against and neither does my family.”
Margaret, the wife of Garrett Carton, has three daughters, three grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. She is a best-selling author and holds a diploma in architecture. She continues to work at the age of 85, helping her daughter Libby with the bookkeeping at Kinnegar Brewery. In Rathmullan, she has been heavily involved in the history society.
HOUSEWIFE OF THE YEAR opened in Irish cinemas on 22nd November 2024.
Margaret admits that she didn’t much like the documentary at first.
Her unease, she said, was rooted in what was included from her own interviews, which explore her eldest daughter Kate’s life as a single parent, and the amount of archive footage included from the competition over the years.
“The more I see it the more I realise what they are getting at, it’s about the difference between life back then and life now,” she said.
“Having seen it again in Dublin and a fortnight ago in Belfast, I got to like it better and understand better why so much of that footage was shown.
“Young people nowadays have no idea what life was like back then.”
At the third screening she attended, in Belfast, Margaret was approached by a woman who said the documentary should be shown as part of the Leaving Certificate curriculum.
“People are very impressed by it. It’s an eye-opener for young people,” Margaret said.
“The great thing that came across was the influence that the church had on our lives, particularly with morals, particularly sexual morality. There was no contraception, there were big families and I found it very interesting to meet the other women who were interviewed in this film because they have done wonderful things. A lot of them started from difficult beginnings and have made great lives for themselves.”
One shocking story in the documentary is that of Cork woman Ellen Gowan, who was sent to a Magdalene Laundry at the age of 16 after taking photos with a group of friends, both boys and girls, messing about on a rowing boat. The photos got into the hands of a local priest. Ellen was sent away for 18 months.
Another woman who took part in the competition was born in a Mother and Baby Home but could not speak of it.
Margaret said the documentary participants were the most admirable women.
“I am delighted to have met them,” she said.
By the time Margaret entered Housewife of the Year, she could already see it becoming an anachronism. She disagreed with the very term of ‘housewife’.
“I always reckon it should be Bean an Tí,” she said. “She is a woman of the house, she wasn’t married to the house.”
Margaret read a poem entitled Bean an Tí by the Rev Brian Smeaton, the local Church of Ireland Rector, on stage as part of the competition.
“There was a lot to be said, as a mother, for not having to go out to work,” she said.
“I would find nowadays that young people work far too hard. It’s far too difficult to run a house, be a mother and bring up your children and work. It’s desperately stressful for this generation.
“It all depends on finding the right man and having a happy marriage. That didn’t happen for everybody, and you were stuck because there was no divorce.
“I think it’s very hard for young people nowadays, they have too many choices, too many things to do.
“It was much simpler in our time.”
Margaret was born before the First World War and although times were tough, she reckons her generation lived in the best of times.
“Nothing was perfect and things improved all the time. The standard of living improved and eventually, the church lost its authority and that made life a bit better too for women.
“People wonder what it’s going to be like for young people nowadays, but whatever is happening is the norm for them. They will cope with it and be as happy with it as we were back then.
“We are all people of our time.”
Housewife of the Year will be screened in the Brunswick Moviebowl, Derry, this Saturday 30th November as part of the Foyle Film Festival.
The documentary which has upcoming screenings at the Newport Beach Film Festival, the Santa Fe International Film Festival and the Kerry International Film Festival next month was produced by Maria Horgan for Little Wing Films with funding from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, RTÉ, SVT, DR, and NRK.