I didn’t realise there was anything missing from my life until I joined the WI in 2013. I’d retired from my long-term job and just felt I needed to try something new. I discovered a group that met neaby so popped my head round the door. I was bowled over by the welcome, the chatter, the speaker, the range of activities and there wasn’t a single attendee who looked remotely like Miss Marple in twinset and pearls!
I had a Grandmother who had been a WI member in Allendale, a rural town in Northumberland and my Aunt was President of the same WI for many years. Both were accomplished cooks and crafters but managed to escape 1960s domesticity occasionally to attend courses at a mysterious place called Denman College in Oxfordshire. Sadly this well known adult education college has now closed but I’m sure local equivalent opportunities will soon be available. Indeed during the recent pandemic there have been numerous online courses for members to attend for next to nothing, albeit via zoom.
Prior to joining the WI, I was only aware of the monthly speaker meetings and the WI’s cooking and craft leanings…. ignorance is bliss. Unbeknown to me my life was about to be enriched by a ton of new experiences instigated and shared with a mass of dynamic, intelligent, diverse, supportive and friendly extraordinary women, spanning fifty decades or more.
The WI is a non party political, non religious, very progressive organization and in recent years has made concerted efforts to welcome not only women of all ages and classes but to be more inclusive to the LGBTQ community and trans women.
It turns out Jerusalem isn’t sung with quite such regularity as portrayed in ‘The Calendar Girls’, it doesn’t matter if you’ve no intention of making jam, loathe cooking and haven’t done any craft work since creating a raffia napkin ring at primary school. What does matter is being there, having a go, possibly learning something new, choosing to support a community project or campaigning on an important national issue and being capable of laughing a lot whilst consuming tea and cake!
It is difficult to know where to start when I look back. Yes we did have great speakers, enjoyable walks, fun cycle rides and museum trips but there was much I hadn’t anticipated. My first event – kayaking, was just a taster of physical activities to come – indoor sky-diving, wake boarding (my poor shoulder), paddle boarding, whitewater rafting in Llangollen not to mention being being trussed up like a chicken and hurled over Penrhyn slate quarry in North Wales on the world’s fastest zip wire!
Before I knew it I was dressed as a Suffragette and marching through the centre of Manchester in the annual parade alongside staff from the Pankhurst Centre shouting “Votes for women”! Next I was absorbing the delights of the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London.
I’ve great memories of weekends away in Shropshire and Wales and several camping extravaganzas. Imagine several hundred women from all walks of life joining forces in a Nottinghamshire Scout camp. The incredible ‘Tea n Tents’ organisers offered the dilemma of whether I should sign up for hoola-hooping, enter the bake off, take a dip in a hot tub, watch the vintage hair demo or join in the Quidditch for muggles game! The Speaker’s Corner boasted compelling talks on topics such as dementia, digital poverty, adoption, mindfulness to endometriosis. Surprisingly I even found myself in ‘the corner’ doing a slot on a subject close to my heart. Evening entertainment included a hilarious ‘WIs Got Talent’ Show… as if there was a shortage!
The National Federation of Women’s Insitute’s holds an annual meeting and I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a couple of these. These proved to be fascinating and included prominent well known guest speakers such as Dame Stella Rimington (former Director of MI5), Dame Cressida Dick (first woman Commissioner of Metropolitan Police Service in London) and the Rt Hon Baroness Hale of Richmond (President of the Supreme Court). The pros and cons of our chosen resolutions were also presented. In the past these have included topics such as: End Plastic Soup, Make Time for Mental Health, Don’t Fear the Smear, A Call Against the Decline in Local Bus Services, A Call to Increase the Subtle Signs of Ovarian Cancer and more recently a Campaign to raise awareness of Autism & ADHD in women and girls and to take action to improve the diagnosis process. Make no mistake, the WI takes these campaigns very seriously and is not an organization to be messed with.
In the unlikely event of you needing more stimulation other than provided by your local group, you might wish to get involved in your local federation of which there are 70 in the country. These hyper-active organizations are the link between local Wis and the WI National Office in London.
To sum up, the WI is where all women can celebrate who they are surrounded by other supportive women. I share my enthusiasm with nearly 220,000 others in 6,300 WIs throughout the UK. Why not give it a go? So, I’m not kidding, the strapline says it all:
WI Life article - Feb 2023 !
