Yesterday's coverage of The Irish Times/Behaviour and Attitudes social poll revealed that financial independence is the top priority for Irish women today, with many experiencing difficulty in their ability to cope with day-to-day living expresses.
Today, we explore the manner in which women spend their valuable spare time, and the various sources they turn to when in need of emotional comfort and reassurance.
The list of social activities presented to respondents in the opinion poll is by no means intended as definitive, but was devised as a means of measuring relative levels of engagement with key types of activities.
The first finding of note relates to the remarkably high number of Irish women reading books nowadays. In effect, two-thirds in total read a book/books at least once a month, with the great majority of these dipping in on a weekly basis. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the data reveals that these high readership levels remain consistent across all of the key age groups - from the very young to the very old. Evidence perhaps that a new generation of Irish female novelists is making its mark on its target audience.
At the same time, we see that significant numbers of Irish women are utilising new media technologies, with four in 10 (approximately 630,000 individuals) browsing the internet from home weekly or more often. A quarter of Irish women claim to be frequently purchasing goods online, a figure which is bound to rise further over the next year or so as broadband penetration continues to grow and people overcome their initial security concerns regarding online credit card fraud.
Another interesting social phenomenon is that of in-home versus out of home entertainment. In line with yesterday's findings regarding the cost of living nowadays, it is perhaps no surprise to find that as many women are entertaining at home each week as are visiting the pub.
Indeed, more than two-thirds of Irish women are entertaining in their own home at least once a month.
On a related issue, today's poll would indicate that three-quarters of Irish women drink alcohol - a figure that is highest amongst 18 to 34 year olds at 87 per cent and lowest among those aged 65 years or more where a majority (53 per cent) claim to consume no alcohol at all.
While some older women will have given up alcohol over the years for health and medical reasons, many will have abstained all of their life.
The evidence here is that there are significantly lower levels of abstinence among the latest generation of Irish women, although this is not of course in itself an indication that this will lead to higher levels of alcohol dependence in years to come.
It is however of interest to note that, of those who do drink alcohol, as much consumption occurs in the home as outside. This is a reversal of the consumption patterns of five to 10 years ago where very few women drank at home on a habitual basis.
It will probably come as no surprise that one in five Irish women have also experimented with soft drugs (for example marijuana) in the past, nor that such experimentation is at its highest level within the younger age groups (37 per cent of all 18 to 34 year olds). Any focus group research conducted among young people in relation to social issues in recent years has confirmed that soft drugs are often perceived to be socially acceptable and less harmful than alcohol.
There has been lively debate over recent years as to whether Ireland's newly-found economic success has left a void in the hearts and souls of our citizens, as they become more and more preoccupied with the accumulation of wealth. The fact that religion ranks just 15th from 19 issues measured on one of the survey metrics is indicative of the importance of materialism in people's lives. However, this does not mean that comfort is not being drawn from other sources.
The main responses to the question as to which of a list of featured sources women turn to when in need of emotional comfort and reassurance reaffirm one of the general themes emerging from the poll in general: that the main source of comfort and reassurance for Irish women today is that of their close family, friends and partners.
Within this context, it is notable that just one in five Irish women choose to turn to the Catholic Church for comfort and solace. This figure stands at one in 10 of all 18 to 34-year-old women, and peaks at 44 per cent of all aged 65 year old plus.
It is also interesting to note that 7 per cent of Irish women (equivalent to about 130,000 individuals) identify meditation/ yoga/ personal reflection as their key source of comfort.
One woman in every 25 also avails of counselling/ psychotherapy sessions, a figure which rises to 7 per cent of all those from the mid to higher socio-economic groupings.
Levels of trust in the Catholic Church in Ireland also seem quite weak with 55 per cent trusting the church, 18 per cent distrusting it and the remainder unsure.
There are, as might be expected, some differences between the age groups and regions regarding levels of trust in the Catholic Church. Thus, a minority, 45 per cent, of 18- to 34-year-olds trust the institution, a figure which rises to 64 per cent of those aged 45 to 64, and eight in 10 of all aged 65 or more. Similarly, levels of trust in the church are higher in rural areas (six in 10 of all rural dwellers trusting the church) compared with urban dwellers at 52 per cent.
Given the general concern of Irish women with crime and personal security (covered in greater detail tomorrow), it will be encouraging to An Garda Síochána to note that over 75 per cent of all women trust the gardaí, with only 12 per cent registering any distrust of the force.
We saw yesterday how Irish women ranked politics as the least important factor to them out of a complete list of 19 key categories.
Some insight into this finding can be gleaned from the question which indicates that just over one in five (21 per cent) of Irish women trust our politicians. Just under half of all women distrust politicians, with the remainder unsure.
One of the key messages from this poll has been the extent to which Irish women are striving to achieve financial independence at a time of unprecedented economic boom, while still preoccupied with the juggling act this increasingly entails.
There is a real sense from this survey of women drawing upon both their inner resolve and the help and support of those near and dear to them in realising their goals, with the Government and the political establishment of limited consequence to them in this regard.
This is not to say that women are necessarily struggling with today's societal challenges, as evidenced by the fact that 90 per cent tell us they are satisfied with their life as a whole these days, and 92 per cent satisfied with their home life.
Incidentally, respondents also seem to be quite satisfied with the general state of their personal health, with almost 75 per cent of them describing it as "good", a further 25 per cent as "middling", and just 3 per cent (rising to 8 per cent of all 65 year olds plus) complaining that their health is "bad".