The National Federation of Women's Institutes is the largest voluntary organisation for women in the UK, with 205,000 members in England, Wales and the Channel Islands.
We play a unique role in providing women with educational opportunities and the chance to build new skills, to take part in a wide variety of activities and to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities.
HISTORY
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 WIs in Britain. The first Women's Institute (WI) in Britain was founded in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales on
11 September 1915. The first WIs to be formed in England were 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 Lady Denman, to chair the group. In 1917 the administration of the growing WI movement was transferred to the Board of Agriculture. It became part of the Women's branch of the Food Production Department, which also organised the newly formed Women's Land Army.
On 16 October 1917, representatives of 60 of the 137 existing WIs met at Central Hall, Westminster, to accept these changes and to set up the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI). All WIs were to be "self-governing and self supporting bodies" affiliated to 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. From 1917 until 1919 WIs played an important role in educating members in domestic science and increasing the production and preservation 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 26 June 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 Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW).
With the First World War over, 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 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, particularly Quakers, 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. In World War II they limited their contribution to such activities as looking after evacuees, and running the Government-sponsored Preservation Centres where volunteers made jam or canned excess produce. All this produce was sent to depots to be added to the rations.
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 Ltd.
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 adult education centre attended by approximately 6,000 students each year. It is now open to non-members as well as members.
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 some( e.g Corfe Castle in Dorset and Middleham in North Yorkshire) leaving the Federation. An extensive article appeared in the Daily Telegraph and there were features in local newspapers, local TV and radio and on BBC breakfast television.
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.
