More than one-third of older workers do not want to retire at the mandatory age, with most of them preferring to retire earlier, a new survey has found.
Almost 70 per cent said they would prefer a phased retirement, while 25 per cent would like to work beyond the age of 65, mainly for personal, not financial, reasons.
The survey was conducted as part of a work-life balance project by Trinity College's centre of gender and women's studies, Ibec, Ictu, Fás, Age Action and Aware.
Most of those surveyed (86.1 per cent) said fathers should have a legal right to paternity leave after a baby is born or adopted. More than 88.2 per cent of women asked for this fathers' entitlement, compared with 83.8 per cent of men. Most people felt that at least some of the leave should be paid and should last between one and four weeks. Meanwhile, 85 per cent felt that parental leave should be paid, at least in part.
More than 90 per cent said there should be a national programme of childcare facilities for pre-school children, as well as tax concessions for childcare costs.
In 1978, 68 per cent of people said it was bad for young children if their mothers went out to work, even if they were well taken care of by another adult. That figure has now dropped to 39 per cent, and almost 33 per cent of people said mothers should not work outside the home if they did not need the money.
The survey found a strongly held belief that family-friendly arrangements hamper career success. Half of those surveyed agreed that "you put your career on hold when you work part-time/job-share".
Some 60 per cent said men would be seen as being less serious about their career if they worked part-time or job-shared, while less than 30 per cent said women who worked part-time were "usually less serious" about their careers.
"These kinds of attitudes need to be addressed if greater work-life balance for both men and women is to be attained," said project director Dr Margaret Fine-Davis, senior research fellow at TCD's centre for gender and women's studies.
The survey found that, while attitudes to gender roles had changed since 1978, women were still considered unequal in many ways. More than 20 per cent of respondents said husbands should have the main say in family matters. Some 12 per cent agreed with the statement that "female workers, even if qualified and experienced, are in some ways less reliable, less committed and less serious than men".
And 16 per cent of those surveyed agreed that "women are by their nature too highly strung to hold certain jobs".
The wide-ranging survey also found that the car was by far the preferred mode of transport for commuters. Some 66.7 per cent of people said they travelled to work by car, while more than 12 per cent walked.
However, nearly 45 per cent of cycling commuters said they would prefer to drive, and 21 per cent of walkers said they would prefer to use the car.
