Sisterhood and jam – An Irishman’s Diary on 100 years of the Women’s Institute

What do the film Calendar Girls, UTV Ireland's current Sunday night drama Home Fires, and the 2006-2009 BBC sitcom, Jerusalem and Jam have in common? They all relate to branches of the British Women's Institute (WI), the origin of which dates back to June 16th, 1915. It is now the biggest women's voluntary organisation in the UK, with upwards of 212,000 members and some 6,000 branches.

The British organisation bearing the name was not the first, however. That honour goes to a movement that originated in Ontario, Canada in 1897, as a branch of the Farmers’ Institute. It brought Canadian women together from isolated areas of that vast country and concentrated on roles traditionally associated with women in farming, such as looking after poultry and small animals. But it also offered training in home economics and childcare.

The impetus for the setting up of the first WI in Britain was provided by the first World War, the aim being to involve women more in the growing and preserving of food to increase the food supply during the conflict. The Agricultural Organisation Society (AOS) set the ball rolling by appointing the Canadian Madge Watt to establish WIs all over Britain. Llanfairpwll on Anglesey in Wales and Singleton in Sussex were the first institutes to be set up.

In 1916, Lady Denman (a supporter of women’s rights from a strong business background) was appointed chairwoman and the WI grew exponentially, from 40 branches at the end of 1916 to 200 by the end of the war. Originally under the auspices of the AOS and then the Board of Agriculture, the organisation became independent and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) was formed in October 1917.

Paid organisers had to be replaced by trained voluntary county organisers, such was the demand for the setting up of branches, and to fund the new organisation and promote the handicraft work being done, the first National Handicrafts’ Exhibition was held in 1918 at the Horticultural Halls in Westminster. The NFWI also became involved in persuading local authorities to take advantage of the government-funded scheme for housing.

After the war, the government supported the NFWI through the Rural Development Commission and, in March 1919, the federation started its own magazine, Home and Country. The first WI market opened in Lewes, Sussex, that year and the number of WIs reached almost 1,500.

During the 1920s, the new organisation helped to break down social barriers and attracted women of all social classes. Women over 30 now had the right to vote and the NFWI encouraged them to become active citizens. As well as the serious work of the 1920s and 1930s, more light-hearted activities took place, such as involvement in music festivals and performing country dancing, pageants and plays.

Many WIs formed choirs, the NFWI established a music committee and in 1924, Sir Walford Davis wrote an arrangement of Hubert Parry's adaptation of the William Blake poem Jerusalem for these choirs. The hymn has been sung at WI meetings and NFWI AGMs ever since and became the organisation's unofficial anthem.

From the start of the second World War, WIs helped with caring for evacuees but as in the previous world conflict, food growing and preservation was their main contribution. The NFWI website states that nearly 12 million pounds of fruit that might otherwise have been wasted was preserved (the “jam” image has stuck ever since).

A significant milestone occurred in 1948 with the founding of Denman College in Berkshire and it has developed into an adult-education centre attended by some 6,000 students every year. A national music festival celebrated the opening of the 1950s and in 1952 the federation held a national craft exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with a centrepiece depicting “The Work of Women in War”.

The Freedom from Hunger Campaign was a major feature of the 1960s and the 1975 diamond-jubilee exhibition title, “A Green and Pleasant Land?” reflected concern about the future of the countryside.

A new urban WI branch opened in Fulham, London in 2003, heralding an influx of younger members and a steady growth of institutes in the big cities.

The WI has become not only an intrinsic part of the fabric of British society over the past century but central to its popular culture as well.