Dr Caitríona Beaumont on the WI’s history of activism, Wilma Rush on its local impact, Sarah Akhtar on the National Women’s Register and Jill Wallis on paying a visit to a WI meeting

Your article on Manchester’s Women’s Institute (Lightsabers and pale ale: WI sheds jam and Jerusalem image to woo younger women, 30 December) was welcome and enlightening.

The aims of support, change and making a difference are also those of a small, isolated, rural women’s institute like ours (18 members, 17 of whom are over retirement age). We never sing Jerusalem and seldom make jam but do have an enjoyable programme. We are able to support the national organisation’s issues along with vital local ones: we’ve raised hundreds of pounds for Welsh Air Ambulance, Blood Bikes Wales and the county’s domestic violence support group.

Change is necessary for any organisation, but we have not yet gone as far as one nearby WI, which, although affiliated, does not even call itself a WI, preferring the name “the Custard Queens”!

Wilma Rush

Secretary, Pontrhydfendigaid WI

• It is encouraging to read about the success of the Women’s Institute in recruiting younger women. However, it is worth noting that the WI was set up in 1915 and not during the second world war, as this article suggested. It is also important to acknowledge that its popularity did not wane in the postwar years. Even in the early 1970s, it recorded a membership of more than 440,000 rural women. The WI has a long history of campaigning on a wide range of issues relevant to women’s lives. These include pension rights, cervical cancer screening and equal pay. The current revival of the WI is wonderful, but let us not forget the movement’s dynamic history of activism, for women of all ages.

Dr Caitríona Beaumont

London South Bank University

• May I remind readers about the National Women’s Register, born from the Guardian’s pages almost 60 years ago and still available for women to make friends, learn new things, enjoy stimulating, educational conversation and more. Started to support isolated young mothers, it is now just as necessary to combat loneliness and keep the grey cells working!

Sarah Akhtar

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

• Janet Mansfield (Letters, 31 December) appeals for an end to cliched references to “jam and Jerusalem” when discussing the WI. It’s only a couple of years since I visited a local WI to talk about a charity I represent. The meeting began with an enthusiastic rendering of Jerusalem and I’m pretty sure that homemade jam was one of the raffle prizes on offer. Mind you, lots of excellent local causes were also discussed. The two are not mutually exclusive!

Jill Wallis

Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire

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