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Touring exhibition to reveal the real story of the WI
The exhibition Action Women: The real story of the Women’s Institutes will be launched at The Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading on 30 May 2006 before touring to York and Newport.

The exhibition features a wide range of material including photographs, rural crafts, oral history accounts, campaign badges, posters and pamphlets.


The collection includes the story of the WI’s local, national and international campaigns from road safety, pollution and transport to more recent campaigns on children’s diet and the environment. The WI’s association with jam is also explained in the story of how members preserved fruit during both world wars when the country was facing significant food shortages.

Action Women also conveys the social and personal benefits of being involved in the WI and tells of the positive effect of the organisation on the lives of millions of women since its foundation.

The real stories of this extraordinary group of dynamic women are told in the archives of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI), recently catalogued and made publicly available by The Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University.