"Let me tell you about the WI"

All things to all women, the WI is everything you want it to be and more. Seven members share their stories of finding their home in the WI.

‘My WI grounds me’

PHOTOGRAPHY: Anne-Marie Bickerton

I love the WI. I really do. When you have a warm, settled feeling coming home from a meeting, you know you’ve been in the right place. My WI – my gang - is Clapham WI in South West London, and they ooze a warmth, a kindness and a generosity of spirit and I like it.

Some people think the WI is old-fashioned, outdated, all jam and Jerusalem but I think it hits a soft spot. It’s simply soothing. Almost melodic. Time sort of stands still whilst I’m there.

As a woman brought up in a Lancashire village, where life definitely had a Calendar Girls ring about it, (I LOVED the film by the way) I wondered whether signing up to an urban WI would quite do it for me. But it did!

Because it’s not about where you are but who’s sharing in your experience. It’s connecting. Where else would you be able to spend the evening talking to a diverse bunch of women about so many different topics and whose ages range anywhere from 20-something right through to 80-something and come away feeling in awe of what you’ve just been a part of?

I’m pretty busy, who isn’t? My social life and work, along with other stuff I do - yoga, meditation and playwriting - takes most of my time and you might think there’s not much time left for joining a new club but for me, the WI is a must. It’s earthy. It feels right.

It’s not about the activities, although there’s plenty: Lino printing Frida Kahlo being one of my faves, learning some new or forgotten skills such as embroidery or Scottish country dancing. We’ve had authors, MPs, explorers, beekeepers come and tell us their stories. We’ve collaborated with our local independent book shop and set up a gardening project. Once a month we dig deep into the yard at the back of the shop, just because we like it.

We’ve learned about period poverty and swished around in hand-me-down clothes. There’s something about doing all this stuff, together. A sisterhood, collective learning, listening and sharing. It brings you comfort and grounds you and boy do we need grounding from time to time.

Our meeting place is held in a beautifully panelled room above a 19th-century pub in Clapham Old Town and because we are the WI it’s given for free! Community spirit is right at the heart of the WI.

I also love that the WI is part of our women’s ancestral legacy. We’ve been supporting campaigns and galvanising the human spirit for decades. I shall say it again - the WI is very connecting. But why? It must be something to do with the 105 years of good intentions, connections and community spirit of our forbears, our sisters, our matriarchs. Their energy surely permeates the walls of our gathering places.

I’ve had the pleasure of attending a couple of other WIs around the country, as a guest. I get the same feeling. As a complete outsider, a stranger, I still felt the kinship, the warmth and belonging.

In our ever-changing world, life can sometimes feel isolating and cold, even disconnected. Dreariness and sterility can set in. Corona has certainly taken centre stage in that sense, knocking out our monthly gatherings. But it didn’t stop us. We took to Zoom, our socially distant new reality.

I’ve become attached to my WI so much so that I offered to be this year’s delegate at the Royal Albert Hall for the Annual Meeting (having sworn blind I’d never go to another committee meeting ever again after running my daughter’s swim club for 2 years!) It got cancelled along with most of 2020 but I will go next year. I’m in for the long haul.

The WI has supported me in many ways. I published my first book a couple of years ago. The self-doubt crept in. Who was I to write a book and put it out into the big wide world? There was gentle nudging from my fellow members, championing my efforts. You don’t know when life will squeeze you out of your comfort zones or where your next adventure might begin but you’ll always find a friendly, warm and encouraging face in the WI.

The WI grounds you in simple loveliness and that’s even before you’ve taken a bite of Victoria sponge! You can find your home in WI life. Like Sunday morning, it’s easy.

You can see more of Sam’s work at collectingconversations.com

‘We welcome all women into our fold’

Toto James is a dual member of Fulham and Chelsea WI and Streatham WI, Surrey Federation, a WI Adviser and member of the NFWI Board of Trustees.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Anne-Marie Bickerton

Something that I have noticed on my WI journey is that I stick out a little in group photographs. It can often seem like there are not many women from other heritages in the WI. But why not? It is the perfect organisation for all women in the UK regardless of ethnicity, religion or age.

My parents were born in India, moved to Kenya and then in the early 1970s all jobs were ‘Africanised’ and my parents and siblings were told to leave. As ‘children of the Empire’ they had been born as British Indians and were naturalised as British Citizens in the 1950s, so the UK was the obvious place to go. They worked hard and gave me many opportunities; I was the first person in my immediate family to be born in the UK, go to university and pursue post-graduate studies.

My WI experience started when I complained to my husband that I did not have many local friends due to working long hours in my job in law. He suggested that I join the WI. I joined Fulham and Chelsea WI, serving on the Committee and as President. I am now also a dual member of Streatham WI. I was elected a trustee and then Vice-Chairman of Surrey Federation and in 2020 co-opted onto the NFWI Board of trustees.

Growing up in India, my mother and aunts were always part of community groups, local ones or affiliated to their temple. No different to WI members of that same generation joining community clubs and going to church.

For the women in my family, there was a sense of belonging within their community groups. While they were multilingual, English did not come as naturally to them as Gujarati, Hindi and Swahili. There was a common bond between them, as people who had moved somewhere new. It was a safe environment where they belonged and it provided much-needed support. These bonds are almost identical to those I have developed with so many friends in the WI.

These community groups are still strong, not only with my parent’s generation but younger ones too. They have moved with the times; there are sports leagues, annual meetings and, pre Covid-19, bi-monthly lunches for the elderly. They are an important part of our culture, but there is room for so much more.

So why do we not see these women in the WI? From my own experience, I believe it is partly due to PR; the WI is not as well-known in cities as it is in the country. For working women and those with family commitments, meetings are not always at convenient times. Perhaps not enough women know the good the WI does.

One thing that I do know is that it’s not because there are any real barriers to them joining a WI. I have made so many friends and been made to feel welcome, not only in my own federation but federations across the country, many of which I’ve visited as a Trustee.

But this is not just about women from diverse communities. Talking with non-WI friends, the ‘jam and Jerusalem’ stereotype is still at the forefront of people’s minds. They are often unaware of our century of campaign success on the national stage and in local communities.

This year, WI members have been doing wonderful things to support their sisters and others during the pandemic, from making PPE for the NHS to volunteering to shop and cook for people who are isolating. They’re also providing much-needed friendship in this surreal and uncertain climate. But while we are all doing amazing work, we need to be bolder and show people what the WI achieves every day, in challenging times and happier ones.

The WI is not about religion, race or any characteristic other than being a woman. It is an incredibly powerful organisation that ensures women have support, fellowship and access to education, no matter where they started or where they are now. It is up to us as members to ensure that we welcome every woman into our fold, and work together to be the best that we can be.

‘The WI becomes your village’

Suzanne Locke is a journalist and member of Egham Nightingirls WI, Surrey Federation.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Denise Winter

In 2015 and back home in Surrey after a decade in Dubai, one of the things I had droned on about to expat friends was wanting to find community again - something there is a dearth of in the desert.

As a ‘repat’ (or returning expat), I was shocked to find that coming home didn’t really feel like coming home at all. Everything and everyone had moved on, and they weren’t used to including me in their plans. As I was also working from home on my own business, I wasn’t socialising and didn’t feel I really belonged - even though I had returned to the same house in Staines-upon-Thames.

But a couple of months after landing, I spotted a post on a local group on Facebook. ‘I’m thinking about starting a new evening WI in the area. Is anyone interested?’ The timing was impeccable.

The first session was in autumn 2015. Eighty of us turned up and that was the start of the Egham Nightingirls WI. Clearly, yes, we were interested. I took my friend with me but sadly, her attitude was the same as that of many of my friends: ‘that’s something my mum would be interested in.’

Too often, people are quick to judge the WI as fuddy-duddy but, as women, we need female support networks and, as a nation, we need to rebuild local communities now that families are spread around the UK and the globe. In the WI, I have revelled in the rediscovery of my local area, and I love tooting, waving or stopping to chat when I see one of my WI sisters out and about.

For two years, until I had my son, I turned up every month and joined the book club too. As a solo mother I found it hard to sort out enough babysitting to return to WI, but this summer I signed up again. Funnily enough, it’s a direct, and positive, effect of the pandemic: with the clubs, talks and quiz nights going online via Zoom, it’s easier for me to attend than in person.

I’ve made friends for life at the WI, of many ages. In this magazine, in 2019, I wrote about how my WI became my ‘village’ when I made the decision to become a solo mother. I developed preeclampsia and my son was born 10 weeks early. Having to deal with Neonatal Intensive Care for weeks, followed by reflux, hospitalisation for bronchiolitis and a hernia operation in my tiny two-pounder’s first four months of life, my WI gang was a godsend, providing meals and babysitting - even some night shifts.

All the world is right here in the WI. I’ve done everything from meeting another Dubai repat to making a Christmas wreath, and following in the suffragettes’ footsteps through London. I’ve been to see the beautiful Royal Holloway university choir perform Handel’s Messiah and learned about how to help our endangered hedgehogs and the 60,000 honeybees you may find in a hive colony.

After a talk from the marvellous woman running our local food bank (which we support as a WI) brought me to tears, I make the effort to drop off something (particularly women’s stuff, like tampons, or puddings and sweet treats that are less often donated) every time I shop.

I’ve been given courgettes to stuff, from a WI friend’s personal summer glut, homemade jam and marmalade, and been given bags full of scones to freeze. I’ve had a baking lesson at home with our resident baker Jo (who always makes the effort to bake me something eggless as I’m allergic to egg), become a WI Climate Ambassador and had a go at folded book art.

The clichés and stereotypes about the WI aren’t true. As my son will attest, I can’t darn, stitch, crochet or knit. But I happily take gardening advice from our more green-fingered members and thoroughly enjoyed a seemingly quiet talk on the royal family turning into a heated Brexit debate. We’ve only sung Jerusalem a couple of times and I’ve opted out – and that’s fine.

During the pandemic, the Nightingirls have sent postcards and delivered potted geraniums to every single member. The committee is carefully assessing whether they can safely restart some local guided walks, and also take the time to phone any vulnerable or lonely members to check in – aligning with our important campaigns on mental health and loneliness.

Other than getting involved with climate change and microplastics (plastic soup is a subject I’m passionate about and I’ve invested in a Guppyfriend bag to filter microplastics in the washing machine), I’ve never previously delved far into the WI’s history of campaigning.

But reading up while writing this piece, I discovered that the WI campaigned for the rights of single mothers back in the late Sixties, before I was born - and into alternative energy in the Seventies, when I was as young as my son is now. Clearly, it was an organisation I was meant to join.

‘People don’t believe I’m in the WI’

Vicky Downie is a member of The Iron Maidens WI, Cheshire Federation.

My WI's called The Iron Maidens and because I'm into heavy metal music, it instantly popped out to me. I love campaigning and when our Adviser told us about how the WI votes on resolutions each year and lobbies the government for change, it gripped me. Even though we’re just a small group in Wallasey, as an organisation we've got a massive voice and can change things for the better.

I’m on the Public Affairs Committee for Cheshire Federation and my proudest achievement was organising our first stall at Chester Pride in 2017, and again in 2018. I told women about our climate change campaigns, our support of the suffragettes, and they’d say, ‘I wish I could join.’ Wearing my bisexual pride flag as a cape with rainbows on my face, piercings and 14 tattoos, I’d say, ‘Why not? I’m in the WI!’

A lot of people don’t realise that the WI welcomes LGBTQ+ women, including trans women. I was a little apprehensive about telling my WI about my girlfriend, but they just said, ‘When's she coming to a meeting?’

I would love the WI to campaign to raise women’s body confidence. We are all different shapes and sizes and don’t have to conform to airbrushed perfection. My WI is a real mixture and we all dress differently: I'll go along in jeans and a band t-shirt and our president wears a 50s-style dress. When one of our members started learning burlesque dancing, others started going too. Talking to other women about their body image is a phenomenal way to realise that you are normal in your own skin. I think the WI does that really well.

‘The WI is full of different perspectives’

Romilly Jones is a member of Beamish WI, Durham County Federation.

I’m part of what may be the only museum-based WI. We’re based at Beamish Museum in County Durham, the UK’s largest living museum, which is also where I work.

My family has a long heritage in my area, so I've always been interested in history and I love that the WI is a women's organisation with such a solid history – 105 years this year – that lets me connect to the women who came before me. We’ve got two mother-daughter pairs in our membership and I love hearing the contrasts in their stories.

Everyone associates the WI with the stereotypical ‘jam and Jerusalem’ but while everyone loves jam and cake, we didn’t just make jam for fun: it was so important for keeping the country going in the Second World War. We’ve done so many important things in our history, like starting the Keep Britain Tidy campaign in the 1950s.

In the present day, the 5 Minutes That Matter campaign to encourage women to go to their cervical screenings is great to keep at the forefront of our work. I had my first cervical cancer screening earlier this year and posted about it on my social media to show that it was fine. I had so many friends telling me, ‘You’re so brave!’ It shouldn’t be ‘brave’ to get your cervical screening test or talk about it; it should just be normal.

It’s good to have a space where you can talk to other women about this kind of thing. The WI covers such a broad age range and you get a lot of different perspectives on the same female experience, one that we can all relate to.

For more about the 5 Minutes That Matter campaign, visit thewi.org.uk/campaigns

‘I met women who believed in me’

Wendy Morris is a dual member of Fulshaw WI and Cale Green WI, both Cheshire Federation.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Claire Wood

It’s a shame I don’t know the name of the woman who introduced me to the WI at a county show in South Wales seven years ago because she changed my life. I’ve had so many opportunities because of the WI.

I joined Fulshaw WI with my best friend, who had ‘join the WI’ on her bucket list. She only managed a couple of meetings before she died. Most people didn’t know what I was going through, but the comfort of being with a group of women is wonderful. It just felt like I was at home. At the WI, I’m not a mum or an accountant: I’m just Wendy. The WI president took me under her wing even though she barely knew me; she was the one who encouraged me to be president.

All along I’ve met women who believed in me, where I never believed in myself. I’ve been very nervous speaking to 500 women at Federation events, but it’s not like a business forum where people might want to do better than you. I know those women don't want me to fail – they’re willing me to do well. Now I’m on the Cheshire Federation Board of Trustees, managing their website and social media, and I’m an admin on the member-run Unofficial Women’s Institute Facebook group with 11,700 members.

Now that Covid has made digital meetings more commonplace, I want whatever happens in the future to be a collaboration of women from all over the country. I'd also like our WIs to reflect our community now. Lots of people have no idea that the WI isn’t a religious organisation, for instance. I think the future is about smashing that perception and showing that we are open to all.

‘I have a sense of community’

Yvette Rathbone is a member of Stroud Green WI and Gothic Valley WI, Middlesex Federation, and a WI Adviser*

PHOTOGRAPHY: Melissa Page

I was searching for a sense of community when I joined the WI. I’d lived in North London for 12 years and only knew a couple of people locally. Now I can pop out and bump into someone I know and it makes me feel connected to my area. It’s a real joy. I wouldn’t have had the times I’ve had, with the people I’ve met, without the WI.

I was part of the team in the WI marquee in Battersea Park for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. I baked through the night on about 90 minutes of sleep and a TV crew filmed us. My Cyril the Corgi cake made the BBC news.

That same year, my WI took part in a TV programme about transport to the Olympics venue. I was followed by a camera crew and bumped into a friend, who wondered what on earth I was doing. The most surreal things happen to you when you join the WI.

I belong to two urban WIs: Stroud Green WI is the more traditional. We might do burlesque but we’ll knit our nipple tassels! With Gothic Valley WI I’ve toured a cemetery and learned about Victorian mourning practices.

Being a WI Adviser has been a great way to get stuck into the life of the WI. People come to Advisers when there’s a problem but we’re also there for the good times. Having a birthday party? Send us an invitation! We’re there for all members, not just committees.

Lockdown has shown you can take part in a meeting in London by dialling in from your home and it would be great if the WI would take advantage of this to broaden participation in federation and national committee meetings.

In five years’ time, I’d like the WI to be more reflective of society. There needs to be more outreach. Ethnicity, race, religion and sexual orientation is no bar, we welcome all women, including transwomen.

Jerusalem is still our anthem and we make jam and craft but that’s not all we are. When the WI is in the news, it’s always something that confounds the WI image. We confound it every day.

*Words by Lucy Collins