Professor Mary O’Dowd is Professor of Gender History in Queen’s University Belfast. She was president of the Federation, 2000-2005. Professor O’Dowd was a founding member of the Women’s History Association of Ireland in 1989.Her research focuses on the history of women and gender in early modern Ireland (1500-1800).She was a co-editor of the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volumes IV & V: Irish Women's Writing and Traditions (Cork University Press, 2002).Professor O’Dowd was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2010.