MEMBERS were please to welcome Edna Giles to the meeting Edna was an active WI member and held craft mornings in her house until her move to Devon.

Margaret Allen her previous neighbour was entertaining Edna for a few days.

Members went to an indoor lunch for Wells and Wyche WI 100th celebrations and there was an organised coach to the National Arboretum at Alrewas which is now becoming so big there are noddy trains to take you around. After lunch they spent the afternoon at Lichfield and enjoyed the day out.

Members are in the process of arranging a trip to Denman and have been asked to give preferred dates and the Coffee and craft morning at the Orchard Club raised £273 but now they need to organise fund raising events to pay for the speaker’s fees. Members were able to send £50 to the Cobalt Unit from their Penny Pots and Angie brought some Christmas cards for sale.

The lunch out this month will be at The Crown at Hallow on Friday, October 30 and the Christmas lunch will be on December 11 at the Golf Club. After a vote was taken it was decided that all future meetings will start at 7.30pm.

The speaker was Paddy Hanagan on the subject of The Suffragettes, the subject of a new film currently being screened and he gave a fiery presentation similar to the way the women protested.

Until the 1880s it was a class society, a woman would hope to marry a wealthy man to provide for her and she would be his property. She would stay at home and be a good companion, learn to run the household and look after the children and working class women would go into service or work in the factories or mines.

Social reform was changing in society and the women were at the forefront of wanting change. In 1870 the Education Act came and everyone had the chance to learn. Grammar schools and public schools emerged and women could own property, they could improve their education but they were still not allowed a vote and men ruled the Empire and Parliament. As a result women revolted, encouraged by Emmeline Pankhurst and ‘Her Girls’. They interrupted political meetings and formed the W.S.P.U. (Women’s Social and Political Union). They wore green (for hope), white (for purity) and purple (for dignity) and caused uproar in Manchester before moving to London and marching through the streets protesting about women’s rights. They became violent by throwing stones and even setting fire to buildings for which they were put in prison and this led to hunger strikes and forced feeding causing much distress. The Suffragettes chained themselves to railings and the high profile act by Emily Davidson when she threw herself before The King’s horse in The Derby.

Eventually 80,000 members were enlisted into the organisation many in a non-violent capacity.

When the Great War started in 1914 vast numbers of men went to fight and the women were needed to do the jobs of the men. In 1918 the Prime Minister Lloyd George decided to give the vote to women over the age of 30 who owned property and then in 1928 all women over the age of 21 were given the vote and now life has changed with professional women holding many of the top jobs.

The next meeting is on November 11 and Jenny will help us with our Christmas decorations.