To many people the Women's Institute conjures up images of twin set-clad ladies baking buns. It has even been saddled with the "Jam and Jerusalem" tag. But as Charles Heslett found out the organisation is far removed from its stuffy public image - with members in one village near Skipton shedding their clothes for a charity calendar

THE BIGGEST battle the Women's Institute faces towards the end of the century is attracting a younger generation of members.

That's the view of the charity's first officially appointed national press officer Sangeeta Haindl.

She's been handed the task of turning around the Institute's 's cosy "Jam and Jerusalem" image.

There's not a problem with recruitment as such - membership is 250,000 and growing - but her appointment reflects a feeling within the organisation that it needs to appeal to younger members.

As Sangeeta explains, despite the charity raising awareness about a number of important issues down the years, many people, including some women, still dismiss its importance or relevance in a modern day context.

She said: "Throughout its history the WI has been involved in some of the most important issues which have affected women but it does suffer from the 'Jam and Jerusalem' image.

"It has also done a lot of behind-the-scenes work which people don't credit it for. For instance it was one of the groups which helped set up the Tidy Britain Group.

"What people often don't realise is that the WI also operates it own adult education courses and has its own college, Denman College in Oxford, which runs courses ranging from information technology to car mechanics, as well as the more traditional home economics and craft."

The backbone of the WI remains its thousands of groups up and down the country which are co-ordinated by regional federations.

Marion Walker, 40, is the chairman of West Yorkshire's WI Federation, and became an institute member 16 years ago.

She runs a farm in East Morton with her husband. She said: "Before I joined I couldn't see what the WI could offer me as a young woman. A lot of my friends said I was too young to join and it did have this very stuffy image.

"But I joined up and the ladies have been absolutely wonderful. There's nothing wrong with the jam we make, it's excellent, but we do an awful lot more than that!

"We do a lot of public work and we were the first to bring osteoporosis and paracetamol poisoning to the public's attention. Thanks to my experience with the other WI members I don't see age as a barrier for getting on with other people.

"They always say if you want to educate the family educate the female, and even in this modern age of equality women are still expected to run the household even if they have a job of their own. So the WI still has a job to do."

University student Judith Sykes, 20, from Stainland near Halifax, is one of the new breed of WI recruits and joined up when she was just 13.

She said: "A lot of the women who are joining the WI now are career women who want somewhere to come and relax and get away from it all.

"It's difficult to find a woman who doesn't like good food and wine which is something we enjoy a lot of the time. But you can also learn something about a subject you knew nothing about previously."

Angela Baker, 53, is a member of the Rylstone & District WI, whose members posed nude for a fund-raising calendar which went on sale yesterday.

She said: "This calendar shows the fun side of the institute. I've been a member for 25 years and it was a great way of meeting people when I first moved to the area. It's also a very good information network. People think of the WI as a bit stuffy but I think this calendar, like a lot of other things we do, proves how wrong these perceptions are."

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