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.

Location

On the grounds of the Collingwood Museum, St. Paul Street, Collingwood

Themes

• Organizations
• Women's history