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Voluntary Women’s Organisations

'The Myth of the 1950s Housewife: Voluntary women's organisations and the challenge to idealised domesticity in post war Britain‘ Dr. Caitríona Beaumont London South Bank University beaumoca@lsbu.ac.uk Voluntary Action History Society Seminar/IHR/ 6 December 2010.

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Voluntary Women’s Organisations

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  1. 'The Myth of the 1950s Housewife: Voluntary women's organisations and the challenge to idealised domesticity in post war Britain‘ Dr. Caitríona Beaumont London South Bank University beaumoca@lsbu.ac.uk Voluntary Action History Society Seminar/IHR/ 6 December 2010

  2. Voluntary Women’s Organisations • The Mothers’ Union(1885) • The National Federation of Women’s Institutes(1915) • The National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds(1929)

  3. The Mothers’ Union • To uphold the sanctity of marriage • To awaken in all mothers a sense of their great responsibility in the training of their boys and girls, the fathers and mothers of the future • To organise in every place a band of mothers who will unite in prayer and will seek by their own example to lead their families in purity and holinessof life.

  4. The Women’s Institutes • To ensure that ‘countrywomen need no longer lead lives of utter loneliness. They can form an Institute, they can meet and make friends, they can enjoy acting and dancing and singing, they can study the past and consider the present questions of the day’.

  5. The Townswomen’s Guilds • ‘to encourage the education of women to enable them as citizens to make the best contribution towards the common good’. • To provide a common meeting ground for women • To encourage women to take their share in the management of their town and country.

  6. Membership • The Mothers’ Union (England, Wales and Ireland) • 1939: 580,000; 1947: 480,241; 1957: 474,284; 1972: 439,000; 2007: 3.6 millionmembers worldwide • The Women’s Institutes: • 1937: 318,000; 1947: 379,000; 1957: 455,600; 1964: 441,982; 2007: 211,000 • The Townswomen’s Guilds • 1939: 511 guilds (40,808 members approx); 1947: 876 guilds (70,080 members approx); 1957: 2,028 guilds (202,020 members) 1963: 2,410 guilds (211,000 members); 2007: 1,100 guilds (41,000 members)

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