75 Years of WI Campaigns: 1915 - 2000
This selection of mandates, made from
resolutions, which have shaped WI policy in the fields of health,
education, children's lives and the environment through the WI's first 75 years, shows the national concerns throughout this period and the WI's influential role in the UK.
The madates show the evolution of WI policy. Such mandates have empowered the NFWI and grassroots members to respond to, and campaign about,
issues of concern to them, from the inception of the WI to the present day.
1986-2000
1989: This meeting calls upon HM Government to take action to ensure
that the strictest control is carried out on the importation, treatment
and disposal of toxic waste material to prevent any kind of pollution
to the environment.
1990: This meeting urges the Government to do everything in its
power to persuade other countries, especially those which are party to
the Antarctic Treaty, that Antarctica be declared a wilderness park
within which the extraction of oil and minerals and other commercial,
polluting and military activities should not be permitted.
1993: In view of the increased consumption of water for domestic,
industrial and agricultural use, this meeting urges the Government to
ensure the protection and preservation of this country's rivers, streams
and ponds and to limit abstraction of water from underground sources;
further to promote long-term planning and co-operation between regions.
1999: This meeting supports research into a test for ovarian cancer -
the silent killer. It urges WI members to take part in research
programmes and HM Government to set up clinics where any woman can be
tested, as soon as a test becomes available.
1976-1985
1978: This meeting views with concern the complexity of the social
security and taxation systems and asks HM Government to institute a
complete review with the aim of harmonising and simplifying these
systems and eliminating the 'poverty trap'.
1979: That in order to counteract the upsurge in violent crime and
vandalism the Government be urged to introduce stronger deterrents
against crime.
1982: This meeting considers that public telephone kiosks in rural
areas are an essential service especially vital in emergency situations
and as such should be protected by Government subsidy if necessary
against recovery by British Telecom on commercial grounds.
1983: That this meeting urges the Government to bring in legislation
on the status of artificially-produced human and part-human embryos.
1983: This meeting of WIs urges its members to promote and support
the provision of hospice care for those patients who desire it.
1985: This meeting urges HM Government and all relevant regional and
local agencies to provide immediate and continuing help for drug
addicts and their families.
1966-1975
1966: That the NFWI should urge the Government to investigate the
present state of separated mothers and the difficulties and hardship
they often have in obtaining maintenance money for themselves and their
children.
1966: That this meeting, noting the Brain Report on Drug
Addiction... urges parents and those responsible for children and young
people to make themselves aware of the very grave danger in the easy
availability of habit-forming drugs and drugs of addiction.
1972: This meeting views with very real alarm the continued
under-manning of the police force throughout the country and urges the
Government to take immediate steps to improve the conditions and
prospects of the police in order to attract more men and women of the
right calibre.
1975: While welcoming the Government's Committee of Inquiry in the
problems of battered wives, this meeting urges that immediate action be
taken to provide alternative accommodation for these women and their
children in at least every county if not every town.
1956-1965
1956: That the NFWI take necessary action to ensure the abolition of
turnstiles in all women's conveniences and that the co-operation of
kindred women's organisations be sought to secure this.
1956: This Federation deplores the continued withdrawal of bus and
rail services in rural areas and urges the Minister of Transport to
review the position concerning rural road and rail transport and take
immediate steps for its improvement.
1962: That this meeting urges all members of WIs to make every
effort to arouse public opinion to the dangers of fireworks and bonfires
and that the retail sale of fireworks should be banned until a
fortnight before 5 November.
1963: That this meeting welcomes the improved specialist services
proposed by the Minister of Health in the large general hospitals but
protests most strongly against the closing of small hospitals in country
areas.
1946-1955
1950: That this meeting, while fully realising the difficulties of
the nursing staff, deplores the fact that in some hospitals mothers and
fathers are not permitted to visit their children and asks Hospital
Management Committees to allow hospital visiting in agreement with
doctors and sisters.