Paris Women Just Wanna Have Fun Clue #1

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Our team gathered to pay homage to Adelaide Hunter Hoodless who organized the first Women’s Institute 125 years ago. On the steps to Adelaide’s homestead, we honour Adelaide and the many women who have benefitted from the friendships made through the Women’s Institute since 1897 to today.

We were inspired by Adelaide’s many accomplishments and imagined what Adelaide Hoodless might say to the women of the Women’s Institute on its 125th anniversary.

In the words of Adelaide Hoodless:

I am humbled by your suggestion that I am an inspiration to you.

I am a woman who has always been moved by the strength and grace of other women, even at a very young age.

Widowed with 12 young children, I saw the sheer fortitude and determination of my own mother successfully run not only a large household, but a farm as well – truly an inspirational feat.

As for my accomplishments, it is said that necessity is the mother of invention. All I did was respond to the needs I saw in my community. I could never have accomplished these things on my own. I was fortunate to find support in like-minded individuals, who in many cases had the influence and means to make things happen.

The need for household education for young women was obvious to me. I ask: Is it of greater importance that a farmer should know more about the scientific care of his sheep and cattle, than a farmer’s wife should know how to care for her family? I was determined that not one more child should die like my son John Harold from contaminated milk due to a lack of knowledge about its handling.

And why should families living in isolated areas have little or no access to resources and medical care? I was honoured to work with another influential woman, Lady Aberdeen, to found the National Association of the YWCA, the National Council of Women of Canada, and the Victorian Order of Nurses to provide these much-needed services.

As for the creation of the Women’s Institute – I may have initiated it, but I benefit as much as the next woman from the companionship and support that I get from this group. The women I meet provide me with as much inspiration as they claim of me.

I expect that this fine institute of strong, charitable women will be around in another 125 years.

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