THOUSANDS of Women’s Institute (WI) members will descend on Liverpool today for their first conference in the city.
More than 80 coaches will arrive at Liverpool’s Echo Arena as women from across the country gather for the National Federation of Women’s Institute AGM.
They will hear speakers on two topical resolutions and will be asked to vote for or against each resolution at the close of the meeting.
The inappropriate imprison- ment of the severely mentally ill and a ban on sea bottom trawling will be discussed.
Three guest speakers, scientist and lecturer Professor Averil MacDonald, neuroscientist, author and broadcaster Baroness Susan Greenfield, and broadcaster and writer Sandi Toksvig, will address the delegates on the two resolutions.
Despite not being a political organisation, the Institute’s previous AGMs have been the driving force behind changes to national policy.
Lobbying by members and awareness campaigns by federations have driven changes with the 1950s Keep Britain Tidy campaign being first muted during a WI resolution.
More recent successes include raising the profile of Aids in the 1980s, reducing the amount of packaging in shops, and a campaign to pay fair prices to dairy farmers.
The former Prime Minister Tony Blair also felt the wrath of the WI in 2000 when he was heckled and slow hand-clapped at their AGM in Wembley.
Some delegates walked out of his speech on how traditional family values were at the heart of new Labour, claiming it was too long and overly political.
Keen to get away from its Jam and Jerusalem image, the WI balances traditional cooking and crafts with more up-to-date activities including gliding and pole dancing.
Attracting some 500 new members every month, 17 new branches have opened since January across the country.
Despite this, Merseyside is one of the few counties not to have its own federation despite sitting alongside Cheshire and Lancashire.
Mrs Ilene Wilson, vice chair of Lancashire federation, which has 6,300 members, including branches in Sefton and St Helens, said she hoped women of all ages would join their local WI.
Mrs Wilson said: "People often think we’re about baking and knitting but we are a modern and varied group as the topics we’re discussing today show.
"The WI is about fun and friendship, you can learn a lot and make friends. I was recently widowed and I don’t know what I would have done without the WI. Nowadays, people live on new estates where nobody knows their neighbours and the WI is a great place to make friends.
"It doesn’t matter if you move because there’ll almost always be a WI within a few miles and the opportunity to make new friends."
"Some groups do have older members, some in Lancashire have been going since their WI’s started but in the cities in particular there are lots of younger members in their 20s or 30s so it’s a real mix."
The Women’s Institute Movement in Britain started in 1915 and encouraged countrywomen to grow and preserve their own food to increase food supply during the First World War.
In the 1920s after women over 30 received the right to vote, the National Federation of Women's Institutes set about planning a range of activities to encourage women to be active citizens which has continued to this day.
* READ a full report on the day-long conference in tomorrow’s Liverpool Daily Post.
