Background to the Research

• The growing activity of women within and beyond the formal institutions of the political system in NI is an area of increasing interest to researchers. This chapter explores the nature and extent of that activity.
  

Research Approach

• The author draws on official statistics and a range of research studies in order to explore the role of women in NI society. She examines the nature of the women's movement and it's contribution to bringing about social and political change in NI.
  

Main Findings

• In NI, the combination of the Church and State have ensured that the prime role of women is as mothers and housewives - this has made it very difficult for women to organise around those issues of importance to them.
• Legislation in areas such as sexuality, marriage, domestic violence and employment has been shaped by traditional Catholicism and Protestant fundamentalism.
• The women's movement in NI is making progress towards social and political change through the establishment of structures such as Women's Aid, the Women's Education Project and the NI women's Rights Movement. These organisations and others like them allow women to have some control over their lives.
• Poverty is a feature of the lives of many women in NI; they are at the bottom of the list in terms of household income, earnings and high quality housing and good quality childcare. Conversely, they are at the top of the list in terms of infant mortality rates, unemployment and dependence on social security. Many local community groups have begun to offer advice and information to women in order to help them to tackle the consequences of poverty.
• The activities of women's groups in NI receive little official recognition or funding for the important contribution that they make to NI society.
• The issue of the 'National Question' has been the cause of division within and between women's groups. Different women's groups adopt different strategies when the issue of partition is raised.
• The lack of a political settlement in NI continues to have a myriad negative consequences for women in terms of their emotional, physical, social and political well being.
• The absence of any liberal-democratic representation of women in NI makes the task of bringing about social and political change more difficult for the women's movement.
• The women's movement in NI has managed to galvanise women around issues of social emancipation and economic advancement whilst accommodating diverse political views. This has ensured that women will have a central rather than a peripheral role in discussions on the future shape of political and social life in NI.