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Women’s Century An illustrated History of the Women’s Institute
Val Horsler & Ian Denning
Foreword by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. Preface by Julie Summers London: Third Millennium, 2015 Hardcover. 192 p. ISBN 978-190899050. £14.99
Reviewed by Maggie Andrews University of Worcester
The Centenary of the formation of the Women’s Institute Movement in Britain has been accompanied by numerous events, activities and a plethora of publications and re-publications. The Women’s Institute Movement (WI) originated in Canada but was formed in Britain to encourage rural women to play a part in combatting the food crisis that occurred during the First World War. The British WI movement became an independent, non-party political movement open to women of all religious affiliations. It became the largest women’s group in Britain and even now has over 200,000 members. Although this is rather less than the half a million members in its heyday in the 1950s, the WI still remains a significant pressure group on women’s issues. Val Horsler and Ian Denning’s heavily illustrated coffee-table book – Women’s Century : An illustrated History of the Women’s Institute in many respects conforms to the traditions of an institutionally endorsed history of the movement. It has a foreword by HRH the Duchess of Cornwall and a preface by Julie Summers, who is the author of Jambusters (London: Simon & Schuster, 2013) a history of the WI in wartime and the historical consultant to the television series with the same name (ITV, 2015). The long list of subscribers who have funded the publication includes many women’s institutes in England and Wales and it has consequently gathered a wonderful array of images from the members, which are both endearing and illuminating. There are however predictably perhaps rather more images from the second fifty years of the movement’s history than there are from the first, and regrettably this book provides very limited coverage of the early years of the movement, beyond mentioning some of the suffrage campaigners who were members. The emphasis on the latter years is particularly evident in the discussion of education, which strongly focuses on the establishment and operation of Denman College, the WI’s residential college providing short courses for members, which opened in 1948. The college was indeed revolutionary not least in providing childcare for some courses in the 1950s. The cost of courses at Denman, the difficulties many members faced in leaving their homes and families and the college’s limited capacity meant that only a very small proportion of the membership ever attended Denman. The book’s omissions are indeed as significant as its inclusions. There is no reference or mention to the growing body of scholarly work that has been written by historians about the WI in the last thirty years, which those interested in the history of the movement might find more fruitful reading. It seems that Horsler and Denning are reticent about acknowledging the WI’s domestic focus, its elevation of housewifery to skilled work worthy of status and respect and their determination to improve the material conditions of rural women’s everyday lives. This element of the WI’s feminism is omitted although the chapters charting the organisation’s role in campaigning and public affairs do indicate the movement’s radical role in championing equal pay for women, alongside environmental, health care and legal issues that concerned rural women. All histories are necessarily selective but it is a shame that the Women’s Institute Movement’s sustained and important campaigns to improve rural housing and press government to take a greater role in rural house building and improving water supplies were not included in the discussion of WI campaigns. Furthermore craft and food production, preservation and preparation get limited coverage, mentioned fleetingly in chapters on education, public affairs and one entitled private pursuits. This is odd as an examination of the organisation’s history demonstrates that in practice and ethos these were activities of the WI which were of significance well beyond the private domain. Their activities to increase food production in cottage gardens and allotments and to prevent food waste in the First World War focused on preservation and marketing of food and were financially supported by the Board of Agriculture. The contribution of the movement to food preservation running jamming and canning centres in the Second World War is however well illustrated. Women’s Institutes are a large, diverse and radical organisation, which has taken a major role in improving rural women’s lives in the last one hundred years. This book provides an interesting introduction to their history, hopefully it will inspire readers to further reading.
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