Quebec Women’s Institute celebrates 100 years

It stands to represent women of the future and is inspired by those of the past, and this year, the Quebec Women's Institute is proudly celebrating 100 years of its existence.

Joan Griffith, the past-president of the Grenville branch of the Quebec Women's Institutes, noted there were about 200 QWI members at the centennial party, held on Saturday, June 4 in the ballroom of Centennial Hall at MacDonald College in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

She noted there were displays from each of the 13 counties represented by the organization, as well as craft demonstrations and a quilt display showing how quilts were hung outside to direct people using the Underground Railway to escape to Canada. Two long tables of antique dishes and tools used in homemaking a century ago also drew attention from guests, and messages of congratulations from political leaders and dignitaries were plentiful.

"We were lucky to have Ruth Blenkhorn from Nova Scotia, president of the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada, and Margaret Yetman from Newfoundland, the Canadian representative at Associated Country Women of the World," noted Griffith. "They both passed on their good wishes from their organizations. The guest speaker, Linda Julien, former Minister for the Status of Women, gave an inspiring talk about our 100 years of working in our communities. Everyone went home with the feeling that the Quebec Women's Institutes will be around for some time to come."

However, like many historical organizations, there is some concern about the decline in its membership and what it means for the future of the QWI. In Argenteuil, there are currently three active branches - in Grenville, Mille-Isles, and Dalesville - a number which is down from the five or six branches in existence several years ago.

The first QWI was organized by a woman named Elizabeth Ann Beach in the Eastern Townships, more specifically in Dunham, Quebec, on January 27, 1911. From there, word spread through the province and many counties formed branches with an average of 30 members or more.

Beach's goal in starting the QWI was to teach and inspire women - particularly those living in rural areas, with little access to the information available in larger cities - through reading, writing, painting, art, languages, quilting, child care, nutrition, home economics and teaching.

These days, the membership has fallen off as dedicated members have aged and younger women do not work exclusively in the home, as was once the case. Similarly, there is less of a need to teach women about health and education, so the institution shifted its focus to helping out the less fortunate in the neighbourhood, through donations women's shelters or scholarships for local students.

"The grassroots are the little towns," Grenville QWI president Margaret Macaskill recently told The Review. "We're active; we hold fundraisers to donate money to all sorts of projects in our community: breakfast programs at schools, libraries, to support a child overseas, and general community support."

Still, Macaskill worries that the branch will not be around for much longer, noting that similar to the decline of church organizations, today's women are "involved in so many things" that the trend has shifted away from rural community groups.

"It's something very rural: my mother, my grandmother, and my aunts were all members. It's a social network. Years ago, it was a working social gathering for farming women, who didn't see each other much outside of church. It was a learning experience to be part of the Women's Institute."

She acknowledges that there is less of a need for the organization's traditional role, simply for the fact that most women today have graduated from high school and many others from university. "It's just a different way of life," she noted. "The need isn't there. Is there something else that is needed? I'm not sure; women are much more self-sufficient than they were 100 years ago."

Macaskill, like other members, remains confident that there is still a role to play for a women's organization, whether in the local community or internationally. To name a few, she highlights that the QWI supports projects for clean wells in Africa and the Canadian Centennial Gardens.

"I'm always hopeful that it will live on," she added. "I think this is a good chance, now that we're celebrating our 100th anniversary, we can let them know what the institution does and maybe we'll get a few new members."

For more information on the QWI and its activities, call Macaskill at 819-242-0962.