Women in Society
Before 1900 the role of women, especially in Ireland, was that of the home-maker and mother.
However as the politics of Europe changed, especially in the period leading up to and after the
First World War the role of women in society was to change forever.
Rural Women of Ireland
In the countryside women were an essential part of daily life. While it was mainly the men that did all the heavy manual work on the farms it was the role of the woman and the children to do lighter jobs suchas planting and thinning crops.
The Suffragettes
This was a movement that sought to have the role, and important contributions, that women made 
to society recognised. They were mainly middle-class or well educated women who were well ableto argue their cause. The first group set up in Ireland was called the Dublin’s Women’s’ Suffrage Society. It was founded by Anna Haslam in 1876.
Their main cause was to get women the right to vote. In 1908 a more aggressive group called the Irish Women’s Franchise League was founded by Hanna Sheey-Skeffinton.
This group used more forceful tactics such as pubic protesting, hunger strikes and even attacking MPs to raise awareness of their cause.
Struggle for Freedom
1937 – Constitution
Article 41.3
The State recognises that by her life within the home, a woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.
Many of the women involved with the struggle for their own rights were also influenced
by thestruggle that existed in Ireland for trade union or independence. Women’s groupssupported the Irish men during the 1913 Lockout. The Lockout was a bitter strike against unfair wages, working conditions and injury. One such person was Jennie Wyse-Power who was vice-president of Sinn Fein which had been founded by Arthur Griffith seeking complete independence from England. These women republicans were vital to the efforts of the 1916 Easter Rising. Many of them were the ‘runners’ carrying information from one area to another.