184 WOMEN IN CANADA 



years ago, when to the astonishment of their less 

 go-ahead sisters in England, they started a Women's 

 Club in New York City, where discussion of all 

 public questions could take place. Long after this 

 the foundation of the Women's Institutes was laid, 

 and in order to show how much good these have 

 done, I shall endeavour to give an account of their 

 origin, the aims that were at first kept in view, and 

 how these have expanded to such a degree that 

 they now have created far-reaching national re- 

 sults. Although social conditions and intercourse 

 between people who belong to different spheres 

 of life are mistakenly complicated in an old country 

 like England, hopeful signs are now evident that 

 improvement and simplifications of these conditions 

 are likely to take place, and therefore much that 

 this Canadian work has brought about could doubt- 

 less be copied and utilised by us. How it can be 

 done, and which of our many energetic women will 

 best carry out the scheme, can only be decided 

 when we know the full value of what is progressing 

 in Canada. 



A great organisation often has but a humble 

 commencement, and this was the case with Women's 

 Institutes. As recently as 1897, a small band of 

 women met in a village and, under direction of one 

 of their number, it was arranged that they should 

 hold monthly meetings in order to discuss house- 

 hold affairs, exchange cooking recipes, and mutu- 

 ally help each other by giving advice upon do- 

 mestic matters. From this sprang a network of 

 branches and, in Ontario alone, the result has been 

 that some thirty thousand women and girls are 



