International Day for Rural Women, 2022

International Day for Rural Women, 2022

Date: 04/10/2022 16:50

The United Nations has dedicated October 15th to be ‘International Day of Rural Women’. This year, under the theme, ‘Rural women cultivating good food for all’, the Digital Film Archive celebrates the rural women of Northern Ireland who have always worked so hard to sustain and support their families, the rural economy and agricultural life.


The Digital Film Archive is full of the stories of women, sometimes behind the scenes and sometimes leading the way. Our rural heritage is a huge part of our identity in Northern Ireland and everywhere we look in the films, we see women playing a vital role in sustaining rural life, whether it is as teachers in country schools, working the farm, collecting the stories of our past or preserving the traditions of crafts and skills.


In this collection of films, which is only a glimpse into women’s lives, we meet the women who moved into a dairy farm to create a small munitions factory, Elizabeth who is literally ploughing her own course on the land, a female teacher arriving to a remote country school in Armagh on her scooter and Maggie McKillop of Glendun, fishing for trout and recalling tales of her country childhood and many more.
The films give us an amazing glimpse into the many roles rural women play and we are delighted to celebrate that on this day.