For women, ambition is sometimes seen as a dirty word. It’s one thing to have success foisted upon you; it is another, entirely less lovely, thing to actively hunger for it. If you’re a woman, saying you got lucky is fine. Saying “I deserve this, because I worked so hard to get it” is still, even in a more feminist world, much less socially acceptable.

Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution, an 81-year provision prioritising women’s domestic role, is set to be deleted within months. It says the State “recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved”. “The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”

In the past four years, more than €7.5 million has been donated by just seven female-led funds throughout Ireland, supporting a wide range of charitable causes and projects throughout Ireland. The foundation says that, in general, female philanthropists tend to be more “hands on” when it comes to giving and want to get to know the causes and groups they are supporting.

“If you can increase the participation, it increases the base and the potential to come to the top, and compete at national and international level. A lot of funding still goes to that elite level, and it is important to keep that profile, but I think it’s also important to remember where they come from, and where they started out. I’m a big believer than women can be what they see.”