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The Women's Institute (WI), a community-based organisation for women, was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Adelaide Hoodless in 1897. It then expanded to Britain, and later to other countries. Many WIs belong to the Associated Country Women of the World organization.
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The British WI movement was formed in 1915 in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (Llanfair PG), Anglesey Wales. It had two clear aims: to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. Since then the organisation's aims have broadened and it is now the largest women's voluntary organisation in the UK. The organisation celebrated its 95th anniversary in 2010 and currently has approximately 208,000 members in 7,000 WIs.
Amongst WI aims and activities are providing women with educational opportunities and the chance to build new skills, enabling them to take part in a wide variety of activities, campaigning on issues that matter to them and their communities.
Women's Institutes in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are affiliated with the National Federation of Women's Institutes. In Scotland and Northern Ireland there are similar organisations tied to the WI through the Associated Country Women of the World: the Scottish Women's Rural Institutes and the Women's Institutes of Northern Ireland.
Structure and membership
The national headquarters of the WI in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI), is in London. There is also an office in Cardiff, NFWI-Wales, and a residential college in Oxfordshire, Denman College. The NFWI produces a membership magazine, WI Life. WI Enterprises is the trading arm of the organisation and exists to raise funds and provide benefits for members. In 2010, there are approximately 205,000 members of 6,500 Women's Institutes in England, Wales and the islands, linked through the Associated Country Women of the World to other WIs worldwide (in almost a century, Colonel Richard Stapleton-Cotton and his dog Tinker are the only two males ever to be allowed in as fully paid-up WI members).
Activities
Every individual WI meets at least once a month and there is usually a speaker, demonstration or activity at every meeting for members to learn and develop a range of different skills.
Craft has always played an important role in the WI and thousands of members are involved in a range of different crafts across England and Wales.
The Women's Institute is often associated with food, cooking and healthy eating, and food and cooking form an important part of the WI's history.
History
The WI movement began at Stoney Creek, Ontario in Canada in 1897 when Adelaide Hoodless addressed a meeting for the wives of members of the Farmers' Institute. WIs quickly spread throughout Ontario and Canada, with 130 branches launched by 1905 in Ontario alone, and the groups flourish in their home province today. As of 2013, the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario (FWIO) had more than 300 branches with more than 4,500 members.
The first WI meeting in Great Britain took place on 16 September 1915 at Llanfairpwll on Anglesey in Wales. The WI was originally set up in the UK to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War.
The WI celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2015 and today plays a unique role in enabling women to gain new skills, take part in wide-ranging activities and campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities. The WI is a diverse organisation open to all women, and there are now WIs in towns and cities as well as villages.
The WI's archives are kept at the Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics ref 5FWI and are open to the public.
Women's Institutes were formed in Scotland and Northern Ireland independently of those in England and Wales. The first Women's Rural Institute started in Scotland on 26 June 1917, and Madge Watt travelled up from London to speak to a meeting at Longniddry. After the end of the Great War, Watt returned to Canada where she continued as an activist for the interests of rural women. In 1930 she founded the Associated 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 WIs and gave core funding to the NFWI until it could become financially independent. By 1926 the Women's Institutes were 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, which helps to explain why the WI has been extremely reluctant to support anything that can be construed as war work, despite their wartime formation. During the Second World War, 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.
Denman
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 Gertrude Denman. Now referred to as Denman, it has grown and developed over the years and is a well-appointed adult education centre attended by approximately 6,000 students each year. It is open to non-members as well as members.
The WI Cookery School at Denman offers a range of over 100 day schools, residential courses and family courses. The courses are tutored by specialists.
WI Life
Published eight times a year, WI Life is delivered to more than 220,000 WI members.
In 2007, Neal Maidment became the first male editor in the history of WI magazines, which dates back to 1919.
"Jerusalem"
During the 1920s, many WIs started choirs and NFWI set up a music committee. W.H. Leslie, an amateur musician from Llansantffraid, Shropshire, as an advisor. Leslie held a one-day school for village conductors in London in early 1924. He asked his friend Sir Walford Davies to write an arrangement of Hubert Parry's setting of "Jerusalem", for WI choirs. This hymn, with its association with the fight for women's suffrage, was considered appropriate for the emerging WI movement which was encouraging women to take their part in public life, and to improve the conditions of rural life. 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 conducted the singing, bringing a choir from local WIs with him to lead.
This was so successful that it continues to be sung at the opening of NFWI AGMs, and many WIs open meetings by singing "Jerusalem", although it has never been adopted as the WI's official anthem.
As part of the 95th anniversary celebration, a "modern" version of "Jerusalem" was recorded by The Harmonies, selected from entrants from the "WI Search for a Star" competition. It was released in 2010 as part of the album Voices of the W.I.
Jam
Home-prepared foods continue to be a staple for the institute. Country Markets Limited is now independent of the WI but its markets were formerly known as "WI Markets" and it was previously part of the NFWI.
Archives
The archives of the National Federation of Women's Institutes are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics].