She served on the press committee from 1906 to 1913 and was the chair of the interpreters organized to facilitate the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), held in Budapest in 1913.

She also worked as a deputy for the Board of Wards of the state and visited the orphanage and maternity hospital to assist patients and help them with needed services.

A committed pacifist, she joined the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) when the organization was formed in 1915.

[12] Szirmai worked as a deputy for the Board of Wards of the state and visited the orphanage and maternity hospital regularly.

[13] She sent a letter of support to the inaugural congress of the Women at the Hague in 1915, explaining that her work with the maternity homes was too demanding for her to attend.

She stated that "emancipációja elválaszthatatlan az anyák életminőségének kérdésétől, így a gyermekek jólététtől" ("the emancipation of women [was] inseparable from the issue of the quality of life of mothers, thus the well-being of children).

[30] Similarly, in the twentieth century the issues facing single mothers changed from moral problems to rights-based challenges such as how to get men to provide for their children, how women could control their reproduction, how mothers could obtain equal access to education and employment, and how laws governing marriage and divorce could help women.

[31] Szirmai advocated for women to be fully independent with full rights to enable them to develop as individuals capable of supporting themselves and their children.

[27] In 1941, the government began efforts to ban the Feministák Egyesülete because of its pacifist stance and leadership, which violated Anti-Jewish laws.

Despite the forced closing, Szirmai maintained her international feminist contacts, receiving their publications and encouraging their participation in peacefully solving the humanitarian crises and purges that resulted from the founding of the Hungarian People's Republic.

[35] Szirmai is remembered for her activism in child protection, education, and social work and as one of the most prominent women leaders of the Feministák Egyesülete.