The WI at 100: new generation gives the 'knitting and bake sales' stalwart a facelift
The WI at 100: new generation gives the 'knitting and bake sales' stalwart a facelift
The Women’s Institute is luring members in their 20s and 30s – and while crafts are still on the agenda so are burlesque and self-defence
Charlotte Hotham (left) and Mairghread Neligan represent a new generation of the Women’s Institute. Photograph: Sarah Lee
At a recent meeting of the Women’s Institute in Manchester, two women in their mid-50s approached the group’s president, 26-year-old Lex Taylor, and told her they had been nervous about joining because they were worried they were too old. “Which is funny when you think about the image of the WI,” said Taylor.
The WI, which this year turns 100 and will see the Queen attend its centenary annual meeting on Thursday, typically conjures the image of older women knitting in village halls, rather than 20-somethings doing self-defence classes and meeting in bars to get tips from financial advisers.
The WI’s 100th birthday celebrations get under way at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
This is despite an impressive and sometimes unacknowledged history of progressive social campaigning: in the 1920s, the WI fought for the right for women to sit on juries, and in the 1940s it argued for equal pay. It was also one of the first organisations to speak about Aids in the 1980s. But the “jam and Jerusalem” moniker – a reference to the 5,300 tons of fruit the WI preserved during the second world war and the fact that many groups would sing Jerusalem at their meetings – has stuck.
However, among the 5,000 women assembling in the Royal Albert Hall for the centenary celebrations will be the presidents of various WIs that cater to younger women, groups as likely to hold burlesque lessons, car maintenance classes and workshops on how to take good selfies as they are to teach quilting or run bake sales.
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The National Federation of Women’s Institutes does not keep records of members’ ages, but Maighread Neligan, the president of the Dalston Darlings in east London, estimates that close to 90% of her group are between 25 and 40.
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http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/04/women-institute-100-birthday-younger-generation
