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Women in Wales were on the radical road early. Wales Women’s Rights Committee, the forerunner group of Wales Assembly of Women, was formed in 1974 with the stated objective of bringing about ‘a change in attitudes about the nature and role of the sexes’. A record of its activities has now been deposited, on behalf of WAW, in the Glamorgan Archives.
The records were kept and cared for by Dr Jane Salisbury, then secretary of the Rights Committee and today Co-ordinator of WAW’s Audrey Jones Awards for Research by Women. She passed them on to Dr Jean Silvan Evans, who was writing a history of WAW for a history journal and who later arranged for the documents to be deposited with the Archives.
A copy of the catalogue description for the records can be viewed on Glamorgan Archives online catalogue Canfod under the document reference D1812:
http://calmview.cardiff.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=D1812.
The 1970s was a significant time for women’s rights, when legislation was beginning to mirror women’s aspirations. But practice was slow to follow policy. Neither the Equal Pay Act of 1970 nor the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 seemed to change things much. The Rights Committee was at the forefront of movements inside and outside Wales determined to change all that.
The records include details of the Wales Women’s March for Jobs , coordinated by Dr Salisbury as part of national protests in 1982, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cuts made millions unemployed. They marched, 150 strong, from Ynysangharad Park in Pontypridd to Cardiff City Hall, where they were met by an official deputation led by the Lord Mayor.
Wales Women’s Rights Committee morphed into Wales Assembly of Women in 1984.
The records were kept and cared for by Dr Jane Salisbury, then secretary of the Rights Committee and today Co-ordinator of WAW’s Audrey Jones Awards for Research by Women. She passed them on to Dr Jean Silvan Evans, who was writing a history of WAW for a history journal and who later arranged for the documents to be deposited with the Archives.
A copy of the catalogue description for the records can be viewed on Glamorgan Archives online catalogue Canfod under the document reference D1812:
http://calmview.cardiff.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=D1812.
The 1970s was a significant time for women’s rights, when legislation was beginning to mirror women’s aspirations. But practice was slow to follow policy. Neither the Equal Pay Act of 1970 nor the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 seemed to change things much. The Rights Committee was at the forefront of movements inside and outside Wales determined to change all that.
The records include details of the Wales Women’s March for Jobs , coordinated by Dr Salisbury as part of national protests in 1982, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cuts made millions unemployed. They marched, 150 strong, from Ynysangharad Park in Pontypridd to Cardiff City Hall, where they were met by an official deputation led by the Lord Mayor.
Wales Women’s Rights Committee morphed into Wales Assembly of Women in 1984.
- The article on the history of Wales Assembly of Women, ‘Watersheds in Women’s Equality’, was published in Morgannwg, the journal of the Glamorgan History Society in 2020.
This year we decided against holding a Welsh only conference to celebrate International Women's Day. Instead, we embraced the possibilities offered by the fact that the UN Commission for the Status of Women (CSW) was holding their meetings virtually.
We put together a parallel session using some of our previous Awardees who presented their research, live, at this year's event
“What do you know? You’re a woman!” –Gendered Experiences, Institutions, and Representation: Being a Female Local Councillor in Welsh Local Government by Leah Hibbs a final year PhD student at Cardiff University funded by the ESRC to research women's political representation and the experiences of female local councillors in Welsh Local Government.
A critical examination of women leaders’ experiences of gender (in)equality in Welsh sport leadership by Philippa Davies an ESRC-funded WISERD (Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data) PhD student at Cardiff University
The Representation of Disabled Women in Public Life in Wales: Progress, Challenges and Shortcomings by Ruth Nortey a doctoral student at Cardiff University Business School who is jointly funded by Disability Wales and the ESRC. Ruth will be sharing important data from her MSc which has informed her PhD research project proposal.
Womenspire ~ Chwarae Teg Awards
CELEBRATE AMAZING WOMEN!
Celebrate amazing women! Womenspire recognises women’s achievements in every aspect of life, from personal achievements to outstanding contribution. Our Chwarae Teg Womenspire Awards showcase the remarkable accomplishments of women across Wales and will inspire future generations.
https://youtu.be/pylLrxnXpbM
WOMEN'S HERITAGE WALKS IN WALES
Now that Covid restrictions have eased, why not take advantage of late summer and early autumn weather to follow one of the new Women’s Heritage Walks in your area?
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So don your walking boots and some suitable clothing and learn more about more notable and remarkable women in Welsh history.
This image shows a female prisoner in Swansea Goal, a munitions worker killed in 1917, Amy Dillwyn business woman and novelist and Kate Bosse Griffiths German Jew who fled to Swansea and established the Egyptian Centre in the city
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The Sixty-Fifth Session of the COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN concluded on Friday, 26th March 2021.
The closing of CSW65, by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the UN Executive Director, can be found at the link below: HTTPS://WWW.UNWOMEN.ORG/EN/NEWS/STORIES/2021/3/SPEECH-ED-PHUMZILE-CLOSING-CSW65 |
RECORDINGS OF CSW65 MEETINGS AND SIDE EVENTS
Meetings remain available for viewing on demand and are available at: HTTPS://WWW.UNWOMEN.ORG/EN/CSW/CSW65-2021/OFFICIAL-MEETINGS Many side events were also recorded and are available at: HTTPS://WWW.UNWOMEN.ORG/EN/CSW/CSW65-2021/SIDE-EVENTS |
Agreed Conclusions
The Commission on the Status of Women adopted agreed conclusions on “Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls” on 26 March 2021.
The advance unedited version of the CSW65 agreed conclusions is now available on the CSW65 website at https://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw65-2021 . Translations in the official United Nations languages will be added as they become available.
The Commission on the Status of Women adopted agreed conclusions on “Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls” on 26 March 2021.
The advance unedited version of the CSW65 agreed conclusions is now available on the CSW65 website at https://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw65-2021 . Translations in the official United Nations languages will be added as they become available.
WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION IN WALES: HOW GENDERED IS MY VALLEY?
Click below to read Dr Jean Silvan Evans report on the WAW presentation to the United Nations CSW65 in the March 2021 edition of Barry Nub News
July 2020: Getting women back to work: that was the title of our submission to the Our Future Wales Consultation run by the Welsh Government in response to the covid-19 pandemic. Read our submission by clicking below
 Report published in the Western Mail on April 3rd, 2018
April 2018
TAKING THE BATTLE TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN FROM WALES TO THE WORLD. Dr Eleri Evans and Dr Jean Silvan Evans report from the United Nations Commission on the status of women. |
July 2018: Women from Wales call for a global UN Treaty to combat violence against women and girls (VAWG) at the UN annual conference of its Commission on the Status of Women, Jean Silvan Evans from Wales Assembly of Women tells us more
https://www.bevanfoundation.org/commentary/women-wales-press-global-un-treaty-vawg/ 
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Dr Eleri Evans of Wales Assembly of Women, Catherine Fookes of Women’s Equality Network and Ruth Coombes of Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales meet with then First Minister Carwyn Jones