A Great Rural Sisterhood

"This book gives an insight into the complex, determined and somewhat egotistical character who established the Women's Institutes in Wales and England. As we celebrate our centenary, the inspiration and commitment Madge Watt had to educating women has been realised through us, and will no doubt continue for many years to come." -- Janice Langley, Chair of the National Federation of Women's Institutes "Madge Watt's story is engaging on its own, but it becomes more significant to rural women's history through her role in spreading the Women's Institutes in British Columbia and her efforts between the world wars to begin a global organization, the Associated Country Women of the World. A Great Rural Sisterhood features fine research, good writing, and assiduous work in difficult archival sources." -- Terry Crowley, University Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Guelph "A Great Rural Sisterhood presents much that is new and revealing about a significant figure, Madge Robertson Watt, in Canadian social and women's history, as well as the history of commemoration and public memory." -- Veronica Strong-Boag, Professor Emerita, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia

In A Great Rural Sisterhood, Linda M. Ambrose uses a wealth of archival materials from both sides of the Atlantic to tell the story of Watt’s remarkable life and the creation of the Associated Country Women of the World.

As the founding president of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), Madge Robertson Watt (1868–1948) turned imperialism on its head. During the First World War, Watt imported the “made-in-Canada” concept of Women’s Institutes – voluntary associations of rural women – to the British countryside. In the interwar years, she capitalized on the success of the Institutes to help create the ACWW, a global organization of rural women. A feminist imperialist and a liberal internationalist, Watt was central to the establishment of two organizations which remain active around the world today.

In A Great Rural Sisterhood, Linda M. Ambrose uses a wealth of archival materials from both sides of the Atlantic to tell the story of Watt’s remarkable life, from her early years as a Toronto journalist to her retirement and memorialization after the Second World War.