This thesis analyses the evolving status of Irish women through the lens of women’s groups and the Commission on the Status of Women, which published its majority report in 1973. It is the first singular account of the Commission’s origins, the submissions made to it, and the work it produced; this is an aspect of Irish history that has been underexplored to date. In Ireland and many other states, women’s groups were the lobbying force behind the establishment of a national commission to investigate the status of women. Long before the Irish state became internationally aligned via its membership of the UN and EEC, many Irish women and their various associations were part of a transnational women’s movement, which had its roots in the suffrage era. In a climate that was increasingly hostile to the participation of women in political life, and in the wake of the success of the suffrage movement, women’s groups and clubs flourished from the early years of Irish independence. A detailed examination of female associational culture can serve as an alternative reading of the common assertion that Irish women were not politically active for much of the twentieth century. Largely shut out by the political establishment, many women, mostly from the middle and upper classes, carved paths as experienced and professional activists and lobbyists in smaller interest groups.