Women's Institutes

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The Women's Institutes (WI) are membership organisations for women in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Separate organisations, the Scottish Women's Rural Institute and the Federation of Northern Ireland Women's Institutes exist in Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively.

Contents 1 Organisation and membership 2 Activities 3 History 4 "Jerusalem" 5 Bibliography 6 See also 7 External links 8 References

[edit] Organisation and membership

Individual Women's Institutes are self-governing and serve particular villages, towns or districts. They are grouped into 70 county and island federations. Both the individual Women's Institutes and the regional federations are members of the National Federation of Women's Institutes. In 2006 approximately 215,000 women were members of 7,000 Women's Institutes.

[edit] Activities

Women's Institute members take part in local programmes that may include sport, drama, education, craft,cooking and community projects; in addition to campaigning on matters of local, national and international importance including human trafficking, the environment, children's diets, and supporting local shops.

[edit] History

The first Women's Institute was founded in Wales in 1915. John Nugent Harris, secretary of the Agricultural Organisations Society (AOS) had been hoping to involve more countrywomen in the work of AOS with little success. It was not until he met Margaret (Madge) Rose Watt (Mrs Alfred Watt) that he heard about the Women’s Institute movement that had started in 1897 at Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada and grown into the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada, that he found what he wanted. Nugent Harris persuaded AOS to appoint Madge Watt to try to start Women's Institutes in Britain. The first British Women's Institute was formed at Llanfairpwll (aka Llanfair PG), Anglesey, Wales, on September 11, 1915. Several other Women's Institutes were formed in North Wales and then the first ones to be formed in England at Singleton in Sussex and Wallisdown in Dorset.

The organisation grew rapidly and AOS employed other organisers to help Madge Watt. The AOS set up a Women’s Institute Committee to oversee the work and appointed the young Gertrude, Lady Denman, to chair the group. In 1917 the Treasury that funded AOS decided that it would be more appropriate for the administration of the growing Women's Institutes movement to be carried out by the recently formed Women’s branch of the Board of Agriculture’s Food Production Department, which also organised the newly formed Women’s Land Army.

On October 16, 1917, representatives of 60 of the 137 Women's Institutes met at Central Hall, Westminster, to approve the severance of the Women's Institutes from the AOS and to accept the guardianship of the Board of Agriculture. The Institutes were to be regarded as self-governing and self supporting bodies. They were to be affiliated to the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI). They elected a central committee of management (later to be called the National Executive committee and Lady Denman was elected as Chairwoman, a post she held for the next 29 years. In the circumstances of the First World War this was seen as the best way forward as the Women's Institutes could play an important role in the countryside, particularly in domestic science and the production and preserving of food.

Women's Institutes were formed in Scotland and Northern Ireland independently to those in England and Wales. The first Women’s Rural Institute started in Scotland on June 26 1917, and Madge Watt travelled up from London to speak to a meeting at Longniddry. After the end of the Great War, Madge Watt returned to Canada where she continued as an activist for the interests of rural women. In 1930 she founded the Association of Country Women of the World (ACWW).

After the end of the First World War, the Board of Agriculture withdrew its sponsorship, although the Development Commission financially supported the work of the forming of new Women's Institutes and gave core funding to NFWI until it could become financially independent. By 1926 the Women's Institutes had become fully independent and rapidly became an essential part of rural life. One of their features was an independence from political parties or institutions, or church or chapel which encouraged activism by non-establishment women, particularly Quakers, which helps to explain why the Institutes has been extremely reluctant to support anything that can be construed as war work, despite their wartime formation, and in World War II they limited their contribution to such activities as looking after evacuees, and running the Government sponsored Preservation Centres where volunteers canned or made jam of excess produce. All this produce was sent to depots to be added to the rations. It was this activity that led to the jam-making misleading stereotype.

The first Women's Institute Market took place in Lewes, Sussex to sell surplus produce in 1919. Women's Institute County Federations supported the spread of Women's Institute markets. In 1932 the Markets were registered as co-operatives under the Industrial Provident & Friendly Societies Act. Their combined annual turnover reached £1m in 1972 and £10m in 1992. The Markets separated from The National Federation of Women's Institutes in 1995 and became self-financing. In 2004 the company was renamed Country Markets Limited.

In 1948 NFWI bought Marcham Park in Berkshire and converted it into a short stay residential adult education college, called Denman College in honour of Lady Denman. The college has grown and developed over the years and is now a well-appointed, modern, adult education centre with approximately 6,000 students attending each year. It is now open to non-members as well as members.

In 2003 a new style urban Women's Institute was opened in Fulham, London Fulham WI[1]. This Women's Institute has been successful and the press attention it has generated has led to new WIs with younger female members opening steadily in its wake, all over the UK. The new history of the Women's Institute is currently in the making.

A decision to issue the WI magazine to all members from 2007 and to include the cost in the membership subscription led to many branches and members complaining about lack of consultation and to them leaving the organisation.

The NFWI archives, containing papers relevant to the work of the WI nationally from 1915 to 1991, are deposited at the Women’s Library , London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT

[edit] "Jerusalem"

During the 1920s, many Women's Institutes started choirs and NFWI appointed a music committee on which Mr Leslie served as an advisor.

Mr Leslie held a one-day school for village conductors in London in early 1924. He was a friend of Sir Walford Davies and asked him to write an arrangement of Hubert Parry's setting of Jerusalem, for Women's Institute choirs. This hymn with its association with the fight for women's suffrage was appropriate for the newly emerging Women's Institute movement which was encouraging women to take their part in public life, and to fight to improve the conditions of rural life.

Mr Leslie suggested that Walford Davies' special arrangement for choir and string orchestra should be performed at the Annual General Meeting of NFWI held in The Queen's Hall, London in 1924. He himself conducted the singing, bringing a choir from local Women's Institutes with him to lead.

This was so successful that it has been sung at the opening of NFWI AGMs to this day. Many Women's Institutes also open meetings by singing Jerusalem. Although it has never actually been adopted as the Women's Institute's official anthem, in practice it holds that position.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

• Calendar Girls — 2003 film based on the nude calendar produced by the Rylstone WI.
• Country Women's Association (Australia)
• Merched y Wawr — Welsh language women's movement similar to the Women's Institute.
• Mothers' Union

[edit] External links

• [1] Fulham WI
• The Women's Library

[edit] References