The Associated Country Women of the World

A non-political international women’s organization, the Associated Country Women of the World was formed largely through the efforts of Collingwood-born Margaret Watt. Mrs. Watt was a member of the Women’s Institute, a Canadian association devoted to the concerns of rural women, and she introduced that organization to Great Britain during World War I to help in work to counteract food shortages. With the expansion of the Women’s Institute movement to Commonwealth and European countries after the war, Watt began to advocate the establishment of an international alliance. Finally in 1933, in Stockholm, Sweden, rural women’s organizations, including the Women’s Institute, united to form the Associated Country Women of the World. Watt, by then a Member of the Order of the British Empire, was elected the body’s first president.

Organisme international apolitique, l’Union mondiale des femmes rurales est surtout l’œuvre de Margaret Watt, originaire de Collingwood. Membre du Women’s Institute, association canadienne de défense des femmes rurales, Madame Watt introduit ce mouvement en Grande-Bretagne pour lutter contre la pénurie de vivres pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. La guerre finie, le mouvement s’étend au Commonwealth et à des pays européens; Margaret Watt préconise alors la création d’une alliance internationale. Finalement, en 1933, des associations de femmes rurales, dont le Women’s Institute, se réunissent à Stockholm (Suède) pour créer l’Union mondiale des femmes rurales. Elles élisent leur première présidente, Margaret Watt, déjà décorée de l’Ordre de l’Empire britannique.