By Megan Lane BBC News Online

Alcohol units: 3
Cups of tea: O
1.30pm: Wine tasting at WI meeting today. V good!
4.30pm: Bit squiffy. Hic.

A more typical Bridget Jones pursuit

At a recent meeting of the Watford branch of the Women's Institute, the retired ladies who make up the core membership of that group visited a local winemaker for a tasting session.

"I'm glad you weren't here last month - I was ashamed of the WI last month," Sylvia Joyce jokingly confides over tea and shortbread. "The tasting glasses were quite big and they had a good three different wines each. They were getting gigglier and gigglier."

Yet it is just such an outing which will get the thumbs up from those in the organisation who believe Bridget Joneses - women in their 20s and 30s - are key to the WI surviving in the 21st Century.

WI'S NAKED AMBITION The WI dates from 1915 In past decade, membership has fallen by 50,000 to 230,000 Average age is 50+ A film on the branch which made a naked calendar is hoped to ginger up its image

At last month's AGM in London, the WI discussed its makeover plans. No more need Jerusalem have to be sung in meetings (yet delegates so enjoyed belting out the hymn in the marvellous acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall that they chose to reprise it at the end of the meeting).

New members will be encouraged to set up workplace branches, or hold virtual meetings online. And while craft demos may not be out, debates on GM foods and post office closures are most definitely in.

Yet it may be something of an uphill struggle. Young women may well welcome the chance to forge friendships and engage in lively debate, but the WI faces stiff competition from book groups, online communities and women-only gyms.

Image problem

Then there's the name. The very word "institute" denotes a solid, dependable, comfy-sandaled, floral-skirted organisation.

"The WI suffers from the same problem faced by other classic brands like Bristol Cream sherry or Burtons - we associate these with the Britain of yesteryear," says Rita Clifton, of branding experts Interbrand. "They either need to turn around what people associate with the Women's Institute, or get a new name which is a truer signal of what they do."

She suggests something along the lines of Women in the Community, which better reflects its fundraising and campaigning efforts.

Housewives no longer exist like they did in the WI's heyday

"Women helping other women - young and old - is timeless. The Bridget Jones generation hasn't lost that sense of community. It's just that coffee bars have almost taken the place of village halls and other gathering places of the 50s and 60s."

Much has been made of a new Fulham branch, set up by Lucy Hutchings, 26, a PA at WI head office. She and her friends held their first meeting last week at the White Horse pub (popularly known as the Sloaney Pony), where they discussed flower arranging... an event which to some Bridget Joneses will sound as vile as hymn singing and jam-making.

Tea and scones

To pop along to a more typical WI meeting is by no means an unpleasant way to spend an afternoon - there's tea to be supped, birthday cards to be exchanged, charity events to be organised and tales of a bygone era to be told.

Many hands make light work at the Watford WI

It's much like whiling away the hours in the company of 40 very sweet elderly aunts. Which is precisely why I - a member of the generation the WI is so keen to recruit - have never contemplated joining.

Watford member Sylvia Joyce says women come to the WI when it fits their stage in life, rather than vice versa.

"I don't think many young women will be interested, you've got too much in your life. This usually comes about when you retire or, like me, when you are widowed - we form a support network for each other."

Clare Swain, a London-based publishing assistant in her early 30s who is not a member of the organisation but is slap bang in the target market, doubts it can successfully rebrand itself. But she is loath to see the WI disappear, or become irrelevant to those it currently serves.

"To reinvent itself for the Bridget Jones generation would mean a complete overhaul. A national network of women campaigning for equal rights in the workplace, in education and at home, for instance, could be a powerful body indeed. But then what would we do for charity fundraising and sponge recipes when we need them?

"I don't think the WI can comfortably retain the membership it has now and include Bridget Jones. It's better off recognising its market and sticking with it."

Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

I'm 25 and about to join my local WI - went to a meeting last week and found it really interesting. I live in a rural village, although I work in publishing in a nearby city centre. I realised that after 3 years living in the village I ought to meet some of the other women! They're a fairly mixed age group, I'd say from 35 to 90. I enjoy cooking (next meeting is Greek cookery), gardening, walking and so on - and I can learn a lot from these people's expertise. And it's only one evening a month.
Susan, UK

If the WI really want to encourage younger women to join, they would be well advised to improve their website. The WI appeals as, having none of my own, "whiling away the hours in the company of 40 very sweet elderly aunts" sounds good. Especially if cake is involved.
Elizabeth, UK

I am 41, a successful professional singleton and have been a member of the SWRI for 5 years. I find it a great leveller - especially when members e-mail me when I am working overseas to tell me what flowers are in bloom in my garden. Although my friends at work are bemused by my involvement, they do envy my ability and interest in more practical, down-to-earth elements of life.
Sheena, UK

I've given numerous talks to the WI, and have no sense that they belong to yesterday. Coffee bars have not taken the place of village halls in most of the country - they just happen to be the bits 'media types' don't go to - and trendification would be a definite mistake.
Dr G Fincham, Leicestershire

Whilst our local WI has events like "the prettiest handkerchief" they will struggle to recruit. Even my 73-year-old mother resists.
Lynne, UK

I've been a Bridget Jones ever since the vicar pronounced me wife of Neil Jones 13 years ago. I enjoy jam-making, flower arranging, discussing politics, helping others, and manage to fit this in with working full-time as a chartered mechanical engineer. I don't know of a WI branch in Switzerland, where I fled to avoid tired jokes about diaries, but as an expat I value any such group. I've done the next best thing and am involved in the Anglican church here. The support I get far outweighs anything I can contribute. I hope the WI does get more younger people, and get some cross-generation dynamics going; then all involved will benefit.
Bridget Jones, Switzerland

I have been a member of the WI since my mid-20s - in fact I was a founder member of the Sydenham WI in Oxfordshire where the average age was 35. I have lived in two or three different villages around the country and have always found the WI a good place to make new friends. There are many social reforms instigated by the WI since its inception. Wake up and reform your ideas on today's WI!
Janet Oborn, UK

Having just moved to the area where my parents live, Mum took me along to her WI summer afternoon tea last week. It was a fundraising event - �2 a ticket for as much tea as you could drink, as many home-made cakes as you could eat, all in one member's beautiful garden overlooking the Devon coastline. At 33 I bought the average age down drastically. I can't see me joining precisely for the reasons outlined above, but I was certainly made welcome and it'd be a shame if such organisations, full of interesting and intelligent women, were to die out.
Claire, UK

Women simply don't have the time. I work full-time and evenings are spent with my daughter doing homework, bath, stories and bed - by the time I sit down it's past 9pm. The WI is a nice idea, I believe the stresses of modern day living leave many women isolated. We do not have the support structure and community that our mothers or grandmothers had. Maybe if the WI could allow working mums to bring children to meetings?
Abigail Fletcher, UK

There should be a WW instead - Women in Work. Childcare in Britain is too expensive - women put off having children as a result. A strong support network cum pressure group for modern mums is desperately needed. But that shouldn't stop the old cosy WI going on. Doesn't the postmodern society leave us the space for a bit of variety?
Rosalind Duhs, Brit in Sweden

It could open groups aimed at the 20-30 and 30-50 age band as feeders into the WI, like the Guides do with the Brownies and Rainbows. That way the groups can fit each group's requirements: a social committee for pre-mums, who may want to do more that pub and club; young mums who want like-minded company and to have an identity outside of baby care (this may help combat the growing statistics of depression in that demographic); and older ladies who want cake and a natter.
Louise, UK

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