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Women's Grassroots Activism Toolkit 100+

Helping to enhance the lives of women and girls for another 100+ years

 

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For more than a century, women’s grassroots organisations across Ireland and the UK have driven meaningful change, from equal pay and rural electrification, to environmental protection and tackling gender-based violence.

The Women’s Grassroots Activism Toolkit 100+ captures the experience, knowledge, and inspiration of organisations representing over 200,000 women and turns it into practical tools for today’s activists.

Join the movement

Download the toolkit to start a conversation and preserve your history. It will help you campaign creatively and collaborate boldly.

The toolkit includes:

  • A practical 100+ activism checklist
  • Guidance on archives and records management
  • Ideas for storytelling and engaging new generations
  • Strategies for collaboration and joint campaigning
  • Real examples of grassroots action in practice
  • Links to further training and resources
LinkedIn pre event womens grassroots activism visual-3

Who is it for?

  • Local women’s groups, guilds, institutes and clubs
  • Community organisers and volunteers
  • National membership organisations
  • Anyone interested in women’s activism and social justice

Activism can be loud or quiet, creative or policy-driven, local or global. The toolkit supports all these approaches and more.

More resources

The project includes some additional resources. Click a box to listen to one of the podcasts or watch the lecture:

Partner organisations

Huge thanks to the our participating partner organisations who made this project possible:

Meet the principal investigator

Professor Cait Beaumont

Caitríona Beaumont

Professor of Social History, College of Society and Professions, LSBU and Visiting Full Professor at University College Dublin, Ireland, School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice.

Caitríona is an acknowledged international scholar on the history of female activism in Ireland and Britain across the twentieth century.
 
As a historian she is committed to engaging in participatory research to ensure her projects are co-created and co-produced with individuals and organisations, so together they can make more visible stories of women’s agency and activism.

Latest projects

Caitríona is currently co-editing a special issue of the international journal Women's History Review on Women's Grassroots Activism in Britain and Ireland, 1918 to the present. This is due to be published by the end of 2026.

She also has a new chapter arguing that the ICA created new leisure opportunities for fun and leisure for rural women coming out in July 2026. This is in the edited collection by Eileen Hogan and Louise Ryan and is entitled 'Flappers and the Jazz Age: Women and leisure in Ireland, 1920s-30s' (Manchester University Press, 2026).

See the movement

Black Country Living Museum Child Welfare Clinic
Workshop at Dudley Archives, September 2024, when we visited the Black Country Living Museum Child Welfare Clinic.
Women's Grassroots Activism logo
Women's Grassroots Activism logo
Recording of the podcast series

Recording of the podcast series at the Irish Countrywomen's Association Adult Education College, An Grianán, November 2024.

 

 

Caroline Auckland, Soroptimist International Tunbridge Wells and District Club, with the presidential chain of office

Caroline Auckland, Soroptimist International Tunbridge Wells and District Club, with the presidential chain of office.

Caitríona Beaumont and Aisling Nolan with the Soroptimists International scarf

Caitríona Beaumont and Aisling Nolan (then President of Soroptimist International Rebublic of Ireland) with the Soroptimist International scarf. National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin, April 2024.

Women's Grassroots Activism Steering Committee group at LSBU

Women's Grassroots Activism Steering Committee group at LSBU, October 2023.

Recording of the podcast series

Recording of the podcast series at the Irish Countrywomen's Association Adult Education College, An Grianán, November 2024.

Example of craftivism for a campaign for cervical screening

Example of craftivism for a campaign to increase cervical screening take up by the National Federation of Women's Institutes. Dudley Archives, September 2024.

Black Country Living Museum Child Welfare Clinic

Workshop at Dudley Archives, September 2024, when we visited the Black Country Living Museum Child Welfare Clinic.

Recording of the podcast series
Recording of the podcast series at the Irish Countrywomen's Association Adult Education College, An Grianán, November 2024.
Embroidered table cloth by the Soroptimist International Stourbridge Club

Embroidered table cloth by the Soroptimist International Stourbridge Club.

Members of the Soroptimist International Tunbridge Wells and District Club
Project members from Soroptimist International Tunbridge Wells and District Club, including Angela McPherson, Dr Anne Logan (project co-investigator), Caroline Auckland and Lorna Blackmore.
Recording of the podcast series
Recording of the podcast series at the Irish Countrywomen's Association Adult Education College, An Grianán, November 2024.

Funding

The Women’s Grassroots Activism Network was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, Project Reference AH/X008606 (August 2023 - January 2025).

Be the movement

Together we can keep making change happen, so please do get in touch if you are keen to know more about Women's Grassroots Activism.