Youth Work and Women of Influence in Scottish Communities

Ten youth workers from across the five youth groups delivered youth-led research into the impact of the women’s movement and the lives of young women in Scotland. In partnership with the National Library of Scotland, 56 young people researched the inspirational women who had gone unrecognised in their communities from women in business, music, sport and charity.

Youth workers were supported by curators at the National Library of Scotland and given access to see first-hand petitions and documents from the suffragette movement.

The media campaign ‘We are Scotswummin’, and using the hashtag #scotswummin helped to generate significant interest in the project. The Scotswummin exhibition was held at Glasgow Women’s Library where the different young heritage researchers shared their findings and celebrated the stories they had uncovered.

The young heritage researchers gained either the Youth Achievement Award or the Participative Democracy Certificate and a heritage report was published online. Following on from the success of Scotswummin, YouthLink Scotland have just launched their new project – Youngwummin examining the impact of World War One on young women in Scotland.