The introduction of divorce may have led to greater female participation in the workforce, a new paper by a leading Irish think tank suggests.

The research suggests that women who felt more at risk of marital breakdown may have been more likely to take up full-time work after the introduction of divorce legislation in 1996.

The paper, ‘Divorce Legalisation and Female Labour Supply’ by Claire Keane, looks at whether women who perceived themselves at greater risk of marital breakdown were more likely to enter the workforce.

It suggested that the referendum on divorce in 1995 and the subsequent passage of divorce legislation in 1996 led to an increase in the perceived risk of marital breakdown.

The paper compared the participation rates in the labour of religious and non-religious wives, on the basis that wives who were religious (classifed as wives attending Mass at least once a week) would perceive less risk of marital breakdown.

Religious women had similar rates of participation in the workforce as their non-religious counterparts up to 1996 when divorce was legalised following a narrow victory for the ‘Yes’ campaign in a 1995 referendum.

But after 1996, the participation rates of non-religious women increased more sharply than their religious counterparts who attend church at least once a week.

The findings also showed that religious wives had a lower rate of marital breakdown at some 3pc.

This compares to non-religious women whose rate of marital breakdown rose from 8pc in 1994 to 12pc in 2001.

Claire Keane, ESRI research analyst, said that the findings suggest that some attachment to the labour market, rather than increasing hours worked, is important as “a form of self-insurance” in the case of marital breakdown.

“They (the findings) suggest that the 1996 divorce legislation has a role to play in explaining at least part of the rise in female participation that occurred over recent decades in Ireland,” said Ms Keane who added that the results should please the Catholic Church.

The ESRI research bulletin, released yesterday, is based on data taken from the ‘Living in Ireland Survey’ and concludes that the possibility of divorce and a rising rate of marital breakdown may encourage married women to increase their labour market participation and strengthen their outside options.

The bulletin is based on a larger paper supplied to the European Economic Review which said that if working helps to secure women’s outside options in the case of divorce or separation, an increase in the perceived risk of marital dissolution may accelerate the increase in female labour supply.

According to 2010 data, 41pc of couples of working age with children have a sole male earner while one in five couples are dual earning families with the male working full time and the female working part-time.

There were 2,892 divorces last year, 77 more than in 2011.