2015 is the centenary of the formation of the Women’s Institute Movement in Britain and the publication of the Maternity Letters by the Women’s Co-Operative Guild. To commemorate these events, this Conference aims to bring together anyone who is interested in women who organised themselves and others during WW1.

The conference is organised by: The Midlands Region of the Women’s History Network, The University of Worcester and the Voices of War and Peace: the Great War and its Legacy Engagement Centre, and sponsored by the Economic History Society.

Conference Fee £10 to include lunch. Bursaries for students and heritage workers available.

To book contact Jan Lomas, j.lomas96@btinternet.com

Programme

10:45 Welcome and Introduction to the Conference

11:00 ‘Striking Women’: labour unrest amongst First World War female workers,

Chris Day and Vicky Iglikowski, The National Archives

11:30 Demanding their place in the sun: women and trade unionism during the First World War in Britain

Dr Cathy Hunt, Coventry University

12:00 Women’s Agricultural Education and Research

Carrie de Silva, Harper Adams University

12:30 Lunch and chance to look around the Museum

1:30 “Mothers first!”- the Women’s Co-operative Guild and state maternity care, 1914 to 1918

Ruth Cohen, Independent researcher

2:00 Miss Sophie Carey and the National Food Fund

Dr Katherine Storr, Independent Scholar

2:30 The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Families’ Association, County Dublin Division, August–November 1914: a case study

Dr Paul Huddie, Queens University, Belfast

3:00 Brief Round—Up Discussion before Conference Ends at 3:15