By Oyinkansola Akin-Olugbade
On Day 4 of our Women in Ireland trip, it is safe to say we have mastered our approach and routine. Our first stop of the day was meeting with representatives of the Women Federation for World Peace, Ireland. We met at the Belvedere Hotel because they underwent renovations at their Ireland chapter location nicknamed the Peace Embassy. We settled in around a coffee table in a secluded room of the restaurant, which they have converted as their temporary office location. We were attended to by the President, Vice-President, and their Youth Leader. They seemed enthusiastic about meeting us, learning more about our research interests and our work while in Ireland, and echoed the sentiments they had shared earlier about presenting our current findings at a makeshift conference they would organize early next week. We had our usual roundtable explanations about the purpose of the IGL, the Women in International Relations club, and how we received alumni funding to pursue issues pertinent to women on a global scale which led us to choosing Ireland. I usually delve into my research interests in Irish Women in Post-Conflict Economic Reconstruction and how my topic has consistently evolved after each day of meeting such impressive women. Throughout the meeting, they had inquisitive questions about each of our research topics and expressed curiosity. Meanwhile, I learned how diverse cultural perspectives helped explain peaceful transitions and how women engaged in peace should act to bridge more gaps and open avenues for conversation. They also started an initiative that turned into an overarching ideology called “Peace starts with me” which focused on starting at the individual and growing grassroots movements. Our interactions with them were enlightening as it was a welcomed introduction to different opinions as they challenged some of our biases within our research interests.
Unfortunately, Sophia, Olivia, and I left early to make our second appointment of the day with a PhD student focused on development and gender economics and serves as a Research Scholar at Trinity College. I was particularly excited about this encounter as this was a meeting that would answer my gaps of knowledge from an economic perspective. Although she did not have specific knowledge of communities in Ireland, her prior research experience with marginalized communities as well as prior work in gender economics were still helpful to me. Understanding how simply creating jobs and employment opportunities is not sufficient, especially to secure women’s place in the workforce, and how there must be more done at the educational level to tackle the backlash they most often receive from their communities and from society for putting themselves first was just one of the many topics we covered regarding challenging those deep rooted and hindering social norms.
Our last meeting of the day gave us the jolt of energy needed after a long day of back-to-back appointments. On the outskirts of town, about 45 minutes from downtown Dublin, lies the Ronanstown chapter of the Women’s Collective Ireland. We were privileged to discover more about the organization’s missions in women’s empowerment and building their capacity where they already boast a reach of 36,000 women across 17 chapters island wide. We were touched by the testimonies they shared about individual outreach events such as creating crafts-centered events to bridge the language barriers with recently immigrated communities. For my research interests, their report on bridging women and grassroots bonding throughout the island was helpful in understanding the stark differences between the rights, knowledge, and approaches of women in North and South Ireland. We left that encounter refreshed, and enlightened, with more supportive research for our respective topics and some cool merch too!
Our fourth day was once again filled with meeting and learning from women who are doing diverse, important, and impactful work with one common purpose: women’s empowerment. As I sit here reflecting on my day, I am once again excited and anxious to continue shaping and tweaking my research to reflect the wealth of knowledge bestowed on me through these personal, one on one connections on the ground which I, along with my peers, am fortunate to have.