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| WI not just about jam and Jerusalem, author tells Hay festival | WI not just about jam and Jerusalem, author tells Hay festival |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Jam-making by members of the Women’s Institute is normally seen as a fun and essentially benign activity – not a way of killing Nazis. | Jam-making by members of the Women’s Institute is normally seen as a fun and essentially benign activity – not a way of killing Nazis. |
| The Hay festival heard that during the second world war WI branches vigorously debated the consequences of a German invasion and jam was central. | |
| “They got very worked up about their jam,” said the academic Maggie Andrews, author of a revised history of the WI called The Acceptable Face of Feminism. “There are lovely descriptions and debates about what they would do if an invasion happens in about 1940-41, which didn’t look unlikely.” | |
| One woman, she said, decided she would smash her jars of jam and deliberately kept a hammer nearby “because starved Germans would kill themselves by trying to eat jam with glass in it”. | One woman, she said, decided she would smash her jars of jam and deliberately kept a hammer nearby “because starved Germans would kill themselves by trying to eat jam with glass in it”. |
| Another wrote that it was good for the spirit as well as having obvious practical benefits. | Another wrote that it was good for the spirit as well as having obvious practical benefits. |
| Cecily McCall wrote: “Jam-making was constructive and non-militant … for the belligerent, what could be more satisfying than fiercely stirring cauldrons of boiling jam and feeling that every pound was one step closer to defeating Hitler.” | Cecily McCall wrote: “Jam-making was constructive and non-militant … for the belligerent, what could be more satisfying than fiercely stirring cauldrons of boiling jam and feeling that every pound was one step closer to defeating Hitler.” |
| Related: Women's Institute at 100: as pleasingly bolshie as ever | Related: Women's Institute at 100: as pleasingly bolshie as ever |
| More seriously, the WI successfully campaigned for equal compensation for war injuries, correcting rules that said a man’s leg, for example, was worth more than a woman’s. | More seriously, the WI successfully campaigned for equal compensation for war injuries, correcting rules that said a man’s leg, for example, was worth more than a woman’s. |
| They also got heavily involved in postwar housing, demanding that female architects were used and working-class women were included on housing committees. | They also got heavily involved in postwar housing, demanding that female architects were used and working-class women were included on housing committees. |
| Andrews was arguing that the WI has always had a strong political and campaigning side to it – it is not all “jam and Jerusalem” and never has been. | Andrews was arguing that the WI has always had a strong political and campaigning side to it – it is not all “jam and Jerusalem” and never has been. |
| Describing the WI as the “acceptable face of feminism”, Andrews said its origins were heavily intertwined with the women’s suffrage movement. | Describing the WI as the “acceptable face of feminism”, Andrews said its origins were heavily intertwined with the women’s suffrage movement. |
| Even in the early days the WI debated important issues and its members were as likely to be listening to a talk on bolshevism as they were sightseeing in Italy. | |
| Different institutes have different views, however, a situation that still exists today. | Different institutes have different views, however, a situation that still exists today. |
| Andrews gave the example of the subject of venereal disease, an important topic in the 1920s which the leadership said should be discussed. A branch in West Sussex decided there was no need while a branch in Cambridgeshire, near military bases, decided they must and needed to invite the whole local community. | Andrews gave the example of the subject of venereal disease, an important topic in the 1920s which the leadership said should be discussed. A branch in West Sussex decided there was no need while a branch in Cambridgeshire, near military bases, decided they must and needed to invite the whole local community. |
| Andrews, a professor of cultural history, sympathised with one questioner who had avoided joining her institute because she found it too conservative and Conservative. | Andrews, a professor of cultural history, sympathised with one questioner who had avoided joining her institute because she found it too conservative and Conservative. |
| She said that had always been the case because it was a federal organisation. In the early days there were even some institutes where the members sat in rows according to their social class. | She said that had always been the case because it was a federal organisation. In the early days there were even some institutes where the members sat in rows according to their social class. |
| Somewhat controversially, she added: “My jury is still out on whether you can be a rightwing feminist.” A statement which would make a great debate at the next institute meeting. | |