Hilda Tweedy

Hilda Tweedy (1911–2005) was a founding member and leader of the Irish Housewives' Association. She was active for decades advocating for the rights of women on a diverse number of issues including equal pay, girls' education, recycling, the marriage bar (an Irish law that required a woman employed in the civil service to resign her position when she married), the right of women to serve on juries, and other issues.[1] Under Tweedy's leadership the IHA incorporated the Irish Women's Citizens Association in 1947, a group founded to lobby for reform of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland which defined (Article 41.2) women as home-makers.[2] The merger "strengthened our feminist convictions" explained Tweedy.[2] The work of the IHA expanded from just consumer rights to advocating for political rights. She was the official Irish delegate to the United Nations World Conference on Women in 1975. In 1992 she published A Link in the Chain: The Story of the Irish Housewives Association 1942–1992. In 2003 she donated her papers to the National Archives of Ireland.