Report: Meeting with the Advisory Committee on Women’s Stories

The WHAI was invited to address the Advisory Committee on Women’s Stories as a stakeholder group regarding the representation of women’s stories and women’s history within the context of national cultural institutions and national collections. On 6 September, 2024 two representatives of the WHAI – secretary Kristina Decker and membership secretary Deirdre Foley – gave a short presentation to the Women’s Stories Advisory Committee. 

Deirdre Foley provided an introduction to the WHAI, discussing its membership and activities, from its founding in 1989 with its aims to promote research into the history of women and gender in Ireland, to bring together scholars in the area of women’s history, to recognise excellence in research, and to promote public engagement with women’s and gender history in an Irish context.

Kristina Decker then provided an overview of the varied perspectives held by WHAI members on the representation of women’s stories and women’s history within the context of national cultural institutions and national collections. In preparation for this meeting, Kristina sent a survey on this subject to all WHAI members as part of the monthly bulletin. Approximately 10% of WHAI members responded to the survey, providing a good indication of the differing views within our membership.

The primary findings of the survey on the representation of women’s stories and women’s history within existing national cultural institutions and national collections were relatively consistent. 78% of members did not believe that Irish women’s lives, experiences and voices, in all of their diversity, have been documented and recorded so far within Republic of Ireland cultural institutions. 81% of members believed that existing exhibitions and initiatives relating to Irish women’s lives and experiences had a positive impact. 78% believed specific aspects of women’s lives, experiences, and voices have not been recorded or documented in Republic of Ireland cultural institutions. 81% of members believed that underrepresentation of women’s lives, experiences, and voices had an impact on women’s lives and well-being.

On the question of a woman’s museum, opinions among members were more varied. 59% of members thought that a museum dedicated to Irish women would be a good idea, 19% were unsure, and 22% thought that it was not a good idea. A comment box was provided to allow survey participants to include additional comments. While not all respondents provided comments, those that did were primarily ‘unsure’ or ‘not a good idea’ voters who used the opportunity to explain some of their concerns. A recurrent theme within those comments was that respondents thought the focus should be increasing the visibility of women’s stories in existing institutions and collections and highlighted concerns about a separate woman’s museum marginalising or segregating women’s stories, rather than being more intrinsically included in national collections.

The WHAI thanks the Advisory Committee on Women’s Stories for inviting them to present, and we watch the further activities of the Advisory Committee with interest.