Following the end of the United Nations decade on women in 1985, a working party exploring the position of women in church was set up in Scotland. On 19 March 1988 an open meeting was held at which Sister Mary Kilpatrick, Secretary Justice and Peace Commission and Mary Shanahan, a Roman Catholic and experienced educational worker, spoke. A year later in 1989, with financial support from the Falkland Community Trust, the Women's Church Resource Group's centre was launched at 15d Hill Street, Glasgow. Co-ordinated by Mary Shanahan and supported by a group of about thirty women, including Pat MacEachan, Honor Hania, Betty Campbell, Kathie Walsh and Barnie Pugh, the WCRG's aim was to support and develop the understanding of the role of women in church and society through training, study, employment and support. On 16 May, 1996 the last steering group meeting was held and two years later the papers, books and resources of the group were donated to Glasgow Women's Library.
Catholic Women’s Ordination (CWO) began in 1993 as a national group of women and men demanding that women be equal with men in the church community, not only in the vocational sense, but in the ministerial priesthood. They aim to achieve a forum for examining, challenging and developing the present understanding of priesthood, with the desire to achieve ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church a secondary, though equally important, goal. By 2000 there were CWO groups throughout Britain and a membership of 500 people. Campaign activities include support networks, newsletters, conferences, advertising, participation in ecumenical activities, and monthly vigils in London and Edinburgh. It is run and organised on a volunteer basis, with members of CWO contributing to their National Co-ordinating Group (NatCog) in order to maintain a cohesive message across the UK. By 2014 there were two hundred Roman Catholic Women Priests across four continents, though on ordination to the priesthood they are automatically excommunicated. CWO continues to campaign for reformation of the Roman Catholic priesthood and for women to be recognised as priests in Canon Law.
The Socialist Sunday School was an educational organisation created in Glasgow in the 1890s in order to teach children and young people the ideals and principals of socialism. Though associated with political stances instead of a religious one, the Schools adhered to a "religion of love’" perspective, pushing for equality and peace, and giving the younger generation the tools they needed to help bring the ideals of socialism to fruition. Children attended meetings, recorded minutes, were taught through literature, music and art, and were encouraged to form their own opinions, ask questions, and become active, conscientious people. Furthermore, the organisation was committed to women’s equality. Girls were treated equally in schools and the movement recognised a less stereotypical role for women. Women activists and equality campaigns were frequently referencedin the Sunday School’s magazine ‘Young Socialist’, and those who attended the School attribute its practice in equality to have informed their views on gender relations. The schools were renamed ‘The Socialist Fellowship’ in 1965, but due to a lack of adult support, the last traces of the movement were extinguished in 1980.
Created in 1938, the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was created in response the growing threat of a second world war. It recruited women to fill in as cooks, clerks, orderlies, storekeepers and drivers, thereby allowing more male soldiers to be sent to the front line. The women in the ATS were given full military status by 1941, and though they were still not given combat roles, it further meant conscription expanded to include women, all of whom were drafted to the ATS unless a nurse. They were never permitted to engage in combat, but their jobs and responsibilities continued to broaden, and by 1943, over fifty thousand women served in anti-aircraft units. Black women were also allowed to enlist in. Eventually, in 1949, the ATS was absorbed into the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC).
Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) is a civilian branch of the British Army that was created in 1920 by merging the Expeditionary Force Canteens (EFC) and the Navy and Army Canteen Board (NACB) to run the recreational premises required by the armed forces, and to sell goods to serviceman and their families. It grew exponentially at the outbreak of WW2, and afterwards expanded to include hotels and holiday camps for military families. King George VI granted his patronage in 1946, and Queen Elizabeth II did the same in 1952. It was also a large-scale distribution operation up until the 1990s, running tea factories, bottling plants, bakeries, abattoirs and butchers. Today, it continues to support the British Army both at home and abroad.
The letters of Isobel Ramsay were written from 1939 to 1946 and detail her work in the Middle East while serving in the N.A.A.F.I.(British Armed Forces) as part of the war effort. All are addressed to her father. Ramsay left for Cairo in April 1939 and spent four years attending to the soldiers, in the midst of which she met Tony Marks, a fellow N.A.A.F.I. member, and married him in August 1940. They moved to Jerusalem in 1943, where Ramsay joined the Auxialiary Territorial Service (A.T.S) . Ramsay and Marks later had a son in 1944, and returned home to Scotland in June 1946.
The St Andrews Women’s Liberation Group was a feminist activist group active from the 1960s – 1980s that tackled issues related to lesbians, parenthood, finances, education, abortion, abuse, assault, politics, society, and women’s independence. The first official meeting was on the 5th November 1970. Newsletters were circulated discussing various views of feminism, the difference between “radical” and “socialist” feminism, and published articles further exploring the best way to campaign for women’s equality in Scotland. Furthermore, national conferences were held with other Women’s Liberation Groups in order to help define the feminist agenda, and, on a personal level, consciousness raising groups were held for women to meet and discuss their feelings and desires.
Mary Lonsdale was a judicial officer and general secretary of the Scottish Co-operative Women’s Guild. She was appointed as one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Lanark in 1933. Throughout her life she was a part of many organisations: she joined the Lanark County Advisory committee in 1942, and was later appointed to the Lower Ward Advisory Committee in 1948, then again in 1960. She was given the position of General Secretary for the Co-operative Guild in 1950. She also spent time on the Herring Industry Advisory Council from the late sixties through to the seventies, as well as the Scottish Council of Industrial Design. In 1986 she was offered an honorary membership for the Scottish Co-operative Guild.
The “Dear Doctor” column, published in the weekly girl’s magazine Jackie, was a Q&A style piece that answered girl’s questions relating to physical and mental health. The demographic of the magazine was 10-14 year olds, and questions sent in covered topics from appearance, to diet, to depression, to puberty, to sex education. Due to the anonymity of both the supplicant and the response, the column acted as a source of medical information on all subjects for young girls who, for whatever reason, were hesitant to reach out to their parents or GP. The letters were answered by Doctor Elizabeth Proudfoot, a GP in Dundee.
Engender is Scotland’s feminist membership organisation, a charity working in Scotland and other parts of Europe for equality and women’s rights. Based in Edinburgh, their goals include increased public awareness of sexism and its detrimental effects, equal representation of women in government, and training women activists at a local level. The organisation launched in the early 1990s as a research and campaigning organisation. They involve themselves in all aspects of society, including care, education, employment, health, media, arts, sport, politics, public spaces, social security, abuse and women’s rights. They also run conferences and events, host women’s writing on their blog, and host a podcast: ‘On the Engender.’