IWA Women

IWA Women is a ‘virtual’ Branch. In keeping with the IWA’s branch structure, it is free to set its own agenda within the charitable purposes of the IWA, but reports regularly to the IWA’s central Board of trustees. Its chair, Professor Laura McAllister, of Liverpool University, is also a member of the IWA’s Board of trustees.

IWA women has a threefold purpose:

1. To increase the engagement of women with the IWA and civic society in Wales more generally.
2. To provide ideas for research activity and events which raise the profile of women’s concerns in Wales.
3. To increase the IWA’s female membership.

At its inaugural conference in November 2009 IWA Women published Critical Mass: The Impact and Future of Female representation in the National Assembly for Wales. This report, published with the support of the Wales Women’s National Coalition, assesses the impact of the National Assembly’s achievement in attaining gender balance in its membership and asks how sustainable it will be in future.

In March 2010 IWA Women organised a national conference, Making a Mark: Women, the Media and Politics in Wales. This addressed the way women are represented in the media and the role they play in it.