To celebrate International Women's Day (IWD), we are shining a light on some of the amazing women who help shape National College of Ireland. Find out what IWD means to them.
Qi Wang (Dana), Home Visitor in ELI in NCI
International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2025
Shining a light on the women of NCI.
My name is Qi Wang. I have been called Dana since coming to Ireland. When I started working in a crèche the children found my name hard to say, so I have used Dana for years. Everyone in Ireland says my name wrong, so it makes people more comfortable to have an English name.
The English language school I went to gave us a list of names to choose from. It seems only Chinese people pick an English name, sometimes even in China. We want to make everyone comfortable. But times are changing, my two sons both have Chinese names, and they use them in school in Ireland.
Career pathways and aspirations
I work as a Home Visitor in ELI in NCI and have worked there for four years.
I came to Ireland with my husband 22 years ago. I wanted to be working and not staying at home, but I also needed to look after my own children, I love looking after children. I’d been working in crèche since 2005 – but since I had my second child, I couldn’t work full time. I couldn’t go back to work. If you want to work in childcare, they want you to be full time. What do you do with your children on school holidays, or if they are sick? Women need to balance income and looking after family. I always think I will look after my children the best!
But for me I also couldn’t stay at home. I couldn’t think, this is my life at home. But there weren’t that many opportunities to work part time in childcare. Lisa who also works in ELI told me about the jobs there, so I applied, and the job suits me as I can look after children and do the job.
I was an only child, and I always wanted brother or sister, a social life or friends. My happiest time was being on holiday, with my granny and cousins. So, I wanted more than one child, I didn’t want them to be lonely. Children of our generation were lonely. We didn’t know what a sibling was, and now we don’t have anyone to share looking after our family.
Both me and my husband are only child, we worry about our parents. When we think about our parents we want to go back to China, but when we think about our kids we want to be here. In Ireland the children have very good education without the pressure. In China there is a lot of pressure on children.
Motivations
I am motivated by my children, making sure they get an education and making them happy, and for them to have a more relaxed life than ours was. Chinese culture is much more pressured to study and work. There are so many people, so much completion, you are fighting from birth! People will even pick an auspicious year to have a baby. Everything is a competition, school, college, jobs. It’s very stressful.
What International Women’s Day means to me
That women should have the same opportunities as men, the same chances as men. Before women were only at home and didn’t get to study, or work outside the home. IWD day means that women are the same as men. When I was small, I just thought it was a happy day, to have the day off, for mum to cook a nice dinner.
How things are changing
I’ve seen real cultural change, where women have more opportunities. In Ireland, a woman’s position is better. At home men are doing more than before, women are doing less than before, before women used to do everything! It’s still not really equal, usually the woman is still doing more.
My husband and I still think of China as home, and we worry for our parents. For me, I am Chinese Irish, but my children would say they are Irish Chinese, they think differently, they are at home.