Waterford Institute of Technology hosted the first ever Women On Ireland Research Network interdisciplinary conference earlier this month. National and international speakers gathered over the two-day event to discuss and share research that is being carried out on the role, representation and perception of women within Ireland.
The jam-packed two days facilitated 12 panels on topics ranging from sports and leisurewear to porn, sex, sex education and women and ageing. The issue of gender within culinary arts was discussed. Plus, two important questions were raised – why is there such a small proportion of women involved in science? And why the underrepresentation of women in sport by the mass media?
Prof Louise Ryan (University of Sheffield), gave a brilliant keynote on stories of Irish migrants to London and the factors that cause people to leave Ireland in the first place. Prof Ann Fogarty (University College Dublin) looked at contemporary Irish women’s writing. She specifically analysed the writer Eimear McBride and the idea of women and identity in her work. Dr Máire Leane (University College Cork) gave a fascinating paper on the representation of adolescent female sexuality in Ireland. The serious question of girls being oversexualised was raised. Lastly, Dr Mary Condren (Trinity College Dublin) finished the keynotes by discussing why women are either depicted as angels or sinister temptresses within mythologies. The writer Evelyn Conlon shared some humorous stories from her collection Telling, published by Books Upstairs.
For the first time in a long time we had research being presented on all aspects of women across a broad range of disciplines. Each paper was “rocking the system”, “shaking the status quo” and identifying the challenges faced by women.
The two days concluded with a zestful and spirited round-table discussion which looked at women in academia and beyond. This discussion highlighted the prejudice endured by women in all aspects of life. It inspired us all that fighting supervillains is easy but fighting misogyny is the real challenge.
Dr Clare Gorman is a lecturer in the School of Humanities at Waterford Institute of Technology @ClareGorman4
