Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2002 | Page 16
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Popular Culture Review
the WI system in 1927 and 1928. Almost seventy years later. Ivy proudly displayed
her certificate of achievement and remembered the instruction as a highlight of her
young life.“^ Whether the educational opportunities arose through formal courses
or through information presented at regular monthly meetings, the opportunity to
learn was attractive to women.
A poem written by a WI member from the London, Ontario area described
the monthly meeting as an important highlight in the life of “mother,” a character
from the postwar era who made a monthly reassignment of the usual kitchen duties
in order to attend her Institute meeting:
Mother’s at the Institute-^
That time of the month has rolled around
The kitchen’s empty, there’s no sound.
And hubby knows without dispute
She’s off to the Women’s Institute.
A casserole will be the winner
When Mom comes home to cook the dinner.
Something fast must be the way
When WI meets for the day.
When this day comes, there is no doubt
There’s no one home, the cook is out
And hubby really doesn’t mind
Somewhere a sandwich, he will find...
One would be hard pressed to decide which was more highly valued by
this participant, the new cooking technique, or the afternoon away from her usual
routines. In deference to prescribed gender roles, the poet describes her husband’s
reaction to her outing. She explained that not only did he also welcome the news of
neighbourhood gossip she would bring on her return, but as the last line of the
poem states, “he thinks she’s pretty cute, to belong to the Women’s Institute.” Her
new found knowledge does not change that heterosexual dynamic of his fond
(though patronising) declaration of her “cuteness” nor does it really challenge the
predetermined ideas about appropriate gender roles. Clearly, cooking was her
domain, since he would have to invoke special coping mechanisms in her absence
just to feed himself
An earlier poetic piece written in 1915 is also a comment on gender
relations within the homes of Women’s Institute members. Entitled “A Husband’s
View of the Women’s Institute,”-^ this poem finds the man in a similar situation,
having to cope with his wife’s absence while she goes off to hear “a speaker of
some repute” or to deliver a paper herself to her peers at the local branch. What