Beere, Thekla (1901–1991)

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Beere, Thekla (1901–1991)

Irish civil servant, first female head of an Irish government department, and first chair of the Commission on the Status of Women. Name variations: T.J. Beere. Pronunciation: THEK-lah. Born Thekla June Beere on June 20, 1901, in Streete, County Westmeath, Ireland; died on February 19, 1991, in Dublin, Ireland; daughter of Rev. Francis John Armstrong Beere (Church of Ireland cleric) and Lucie M. (Potterton) Beere; educated at home; attended Alexandra School and College, 1916–19; Trinity College, University of Dublin, 1919–23; prizes in political economy, criminal and constitutional law, jurisprudence and international law; graduated 1923 with senior moderatorshipin legal and political science and degree of Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.); never married; no children.

Joined Irish civil service (1924); awarded Rockefeller Fellowship for study in the U.S. (1925–27); returned to Irish civil service, department of Industry of Commerce (1927); served as senior staff officer, Statistics Branch (1927–41); co-founded (1931) and later became president of An Óige (Irish Youth Hostel Association); served as superintending officer and principal officer, transport and marine division, Department of Industry and Commerce (1941–53); worked as secretary (1949–55) and president (1971–74) of Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland; served as assistant secretary, Department of Industry and Commerce (1953–59); served as secretary, Department of Transport and Power (1959–66); awarded LL.D, University of Dublin (1960); served as member of the Council of Alexandra College (1962–86); named a member of the Public Service Organisation Review Group (Devlin Committee, 1966–69); served as first chair of the Government Commission on the Status of Women (1970–75); appointed governor of Irish Times Trust (1974); named Irish delegate to World Population Conference, Bucharest, Rumania (1974); governor of the Rotunda Hospital; president of the Irish Film Society.

Selected publications:

"The Language Revivals of Finland, Norway and Wales," in JSSISI (Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, vol. 14, 1929–30); "Cinema Statistics in Saorstát Eireann," in JSSISI (vol. 15, 1935–36); "Schemes for the Rehabilitation of Youth in Certain Countries, with Special Reference to Labour Service," in JSSISI (vol. 16, 1938–39); Commission on the Status of Women: Report to the Minister of Finance (Dublin 1972); "Commission on the Status of Women: Progress Report," Administration (vol. 23, 1975); "International Women's Year: (1) Equality," Alexandra Guild Magazine (vol. CXLIX, June 1975).

The publication of the Report of the Commission on the Status of Women in December 1972 was a landmark for women's rights in Ireland and provided a blueprint for effective action over the next decade and beyond. As chair of the commission, Thekla Beere, who supervised the report's publication, was in her own career an inspiration and an example to Irish-women seeking to eliminate the political, legal, social and economic barriers restricting their advancement in Irish public life.

Her father, the Reverend Francis John Armstrong Beere, was a Church of Ireland cleric who moved around the country to different parishes. Because of childhood illness, Thekla had no formal education but was taught by her mother Lucie Beere who had wanted to study medicine and was determined that her daughter would have the educational opportunities she missed. Thanks to her mother's teaching, by the time Thekla Beere went to Alexandra School at 15, she was well up to the academic standard. Her parents had little money, and she made her way through school and university by scholarships. When she went to Trinity College Dublin in 1919, she remained at Alexandra as a housemistress, and she retained close links with her old school for the rest of her life.

Beere was the only woman in the Trinity law school. When she graduated in 1923, despite a distinguished university career, she found it difficult to get a job as opportunities for women were limited. She was interested in public administration, and on the advice of one of her Trinity teachers she joined the Irish civil service. This was an unusual step for several reasons. Only two years had passed since Irish independence, and Trinity College was widely regarded as a pro-British bastion in Ireland and thus unsympathetic to the new Irish state; it was far more common for Trinity graduates to enter the British civil service than the Irish. Beere was also a Protestant, a member of the Church of Ireland at a time when a narrow Catholic ethos was making itself felt in many areas of Irish life. Last, but by no means least, she was a woman, and women—whatever their education and attainments—were still expected to confine themselves to marriage, family, and the home. These were formidable obstacles, but Beere's ability surmounted them. "I used to think that things could be weighted against me," she recalled, "because I was a woman, and a Protestant at that—but it just wasn't so. In fact, I got ahead a bit faster than normal."

In 1925, she was awarded a Laura Spellman Rockefeller fellowship and spent two years studying and working in institutions across America and Canada, including Columbia University, the Brookings Institute, and the University of California at Berkeley. She was also briefly involved in the campaign to reprieve Sacco and Vanzetti—an Irish colleague later noted Beere's great hatred of injustice. After her return from America, she rejoined the Statistics Branch of the Department of Industry and Commerce. The pay was meager; as a single woman, she was paid less than married men although she had a widowed mother to support. She augmented her earnings by teaching evening classes at Trinity and by writing for the Dublin Chamber of Commerce journal.

In the 1930s, Beere became a member of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland and published three important papers in their journal. The first, on language revival movements in Finland, Norway, and Wales, had some pertinent conclusions for the Irish government's intensive efforts to revive the Irish language. Her second paper, on the importance of the cinema in Ireland, resulted from her own love of films. Her third paper, on youth rehabilitation schemes, also reflected a personal interest: she was a founder member in 1931 of An Óige, the Irish Youth Hostel Association, and was involved with it for the rest of her life.

When the government changed in 1932 and Eamon de Valera's Fianna Fail Party took office, the Department of Industry and Commerce became the most dynamic government department under its new minister Sean Lemass. Beere had expected to be promoted to more traditional women's areas like health and social welfare, but in 1941 she was promoted to the transport and marine division of Industry and Commerce. This division was of vital importance in the middle of the Second World War, as Ireland was neutral and suffering from a critical shortage of shipping for essential imports. After the war, there were further major developments in marine policy in which Beere was closely involved. She helped to draft the 1946 Harbours Act from a complicated mass of existing statutes, the legislation for the 1948 International Convention on Safety at Sea, and the 1955 Mercantile Marine Act. There were also major developments in land transport with the 1944 Transport Act which created Coras Iompair Eireann (CIE), the national train and bus company. In 1953, Beere was appointed assistant secretary at Industry and Commerce and assumed responsibility for the department's labor division which sponsored important legislation in the 1955 Factories Act and the 1958 Offices Premises Act. She also headed the Irish delegation at meetings of the International Labour Office (ILO) at Geneva.

In 1959, when Prime Minister Lemass (Beere's former minister at Industry and Commerce) created a separate department of Transport and Power, she was appointed secretary, marking the first time such a senior government position had been held by a woman. The department was responsible for such key semi-state bodies as CIE, Irish Shipping, the Electricity Supply Board, Aer Lingus, Aer Rianta (Irish Airports Authority), Bord Failte (Tourist Board), and Bord na Mona (Turf Development Board)—organizations which were pivotal to the Irish economy. At Beere's suggestion, her minister Erskine Childers had regular meetings with the administrators of these bodies which helped to establish good relations with the department and to resolve problems when they arose. Beere was respected for her energy, toughness and independence. Dr. C.S. Andrews, chair of CIE, praised her "directness and honesty of purpose, coupled with clarity of vision…. [S]he had no hesitation in expressing her views, however unpalatable, to the heads of state companies and to the Minister."

If women are to succeed in the field of their choice, they should arm themselves with the qualifications and skills to seize their new opportunities.
—Thekla Beere

In 1966, Beere retired from the public service but was almost immediately appointed a member of the Public Service Organisation Review Group, or Devlin Committee as it became known. The Committee's Report in 1969 was a major, and controversial, study of Irish public-service performance. The report concluded that civil servants were too immersed in day-to-day business to formulate policy properly. It also recommended better promotion opportunities for staff, to be based on merit rather than seniority. Although these proposals met with considerable resistance within the civil service, the report had a long-term influence on its future development.

In March 1970, the Irish government appointed Beere chair of the Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission's terms of reference were "to examine and report on the status of women in Irish society, [and] to make recommendations on the steps necessary to ensure the participation of women on equal terms and conditions with men in the political, social, cultural and economic life of the country." The Commission issued an interim report on equal pay in August 1971 which recommended: implementation of equal pay, the end of gender and marriage discrimination in public-service pay scales, and the end of the marriage bar which had forced women to resign employment on marriage. These were issues about which Beere, after her long career in the Irish public service, felt strongly.

Issued in December 1972, the Commission's complete report was acclaimed for its clear, succinct proposals. In Chapter 2, the most discussed of the report, the Commission analyzed the underlying factors restricting women's participation in Irish life, chief of which were the stereo-typed role assigned to women and the inculcation of attitudes in both boys and girls in their formative years that there were definite and separate roles for the sexes: "It is from this cultural mould that formal discrimination arises and it is only by the removal of such traditional attitudes that women can hope to achieve complete self-fulfillment and equal participation in all aspects of the life of the community." The Commission's recommendations covered eight areas: employment; social welfare; taxation; the law; politics and public life; education and cultural affairs; and women and the home, which included such issues as household management, family planning and marriage counselling.

During a debate in the Irish senate on the report, the Irish prime minister, Liam Cosgrave, affirmed the government's commitment to end existing discrimination against women, although the following year he voted against his own government's plans to liberalize family-planning legislation. Despite this setback, the report's recommendations were gradually implemented, and in 1975, International Women's Year, Beere wrote a progress report on what had been achieved since the report's publication.

On equal pay, the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act 1974 provided for full equal pay by December 31, 1975; on employment, the government was preparing legislation against sex discrimination; and the marriage bar was removed from public service employment in 1973. Provisions for maternity leave were also instituted in the public service. In social welfare, the more blatant discriminatory measures against women in pensions and benefits were removed, particularly for widows and deserted wives. In the area of law, where women suffered particular disabilities, long awaited reforms were initiated in family law and in jury service for women. In the conclusion of her progress report, Beere wrote that she was "greatly encouraged" by the change of attitudes displayed in government departments, while recognizing that in other spheres much had still to be achieved.

Beere resigned from the Commission in 1975 as she felt that a new face was needed for the next stage of its work. Such was the esteem with which she was regarded that in 1976, following the sudden resignation of the President of Ireland, Cearbhall O Dalaigh, the Commission wanted to recommend her as a candidate for the presidency. Though nothing came of this proposal, she lived to see the election of Ireland's first woman president, Mary Robinson , who was also an alumna of the Trinity Law School.

In her last years, Beere remained active in her many interests. She died in February 1991. Her funeral was attended by President Mary Robinson who praised her pioneering contribution to equality issues.