Housewife of the Year reveals Ireland’s treatment of women through the prism of a surreal televised competition, that has to be seen to be believed. A generation of Irish women competed in front of a live audience for the honorary title of ‘Housewife of the Year’. The former contestants share their direct experiences of marriage bars, lack of contraception, Magdalene Laundries, financial vulnerability, boredom and shame and of course, of being contestants in the competition, which was there one chance at fame and recognition. It is a poignant, often hilarious, uplifting story of a resilient generation of mothers and grandmothers and how they changed a country.