Two important collections of records relating to Irish women’s history are now available in the National Archives. These are the Tweedy Papers, which include the records of the Irish Housewives’ Association, 1946-1992 and the records of the Joint Committee of Women’s Societies and Social Workers, 1935-1993. Both organisations had a powerful impact on the advancement of women’s rights and status in twentieth century Ireland.
The Irish Housewives’ Association concerned
itself with matters such as consumer rights, social
welfare provision, public health, education and
the law, particularly family law.
Following the incorporation
of the Irish Women Citizens’ Organisation into
the I.H.A. in 1947, the I.H.A. became affiliated
to the International Alliance of Women in 1948,
which involved them in issues such as reproductive
rights.
A magazine, The Irish Housewife (Right:
First issue of The Irish Housewife, 1946) 
later The Housewife’s
Voice, was published from 1946 to 1980. The
I.H.A. was involved with many other women’s
organisations and relevant bodies, including the
United Nations, the Council for the Status of Women
(Dr. Hilda Tweedy was its first chairperson), and
the Women’s Representative Council. (Top
left: Hilda Tweedy at board meeting of the International
Alliance of Women, Paris, 1976)
The Joint Committee of Women’s Societies and Social Workers was an umbrella organisation for women’s groups and associations, and its objectives were to work together on issues concerning women and children, and to study social legislation and recommend reforms. Among its early demands were women police, women jurors, legal adoption, better conditions for women prisoners and in children’s institutions, and better representation for women in the Senate. They were successful in many of these campaigns. (Left: Minutes of the first meeting of the Joint Committee of Women's Societies and Social Workers, 1935.)