Women's Institute undemocratic
on brothels
23 February 2009
A Sunday Times interview on 23 February 2009 with WI member Jean Johnson on prostitution shows that Jean and her fellow WI member Shirley travelled the world to understand the best policy for prostitution after being moved by the plight of the murdered Ipswich women in 2006. One important fact emerges, “In January last year the majority of the country’s 7,700 WI members across 206 branches voted for the resolution that gave Jean and Shirley a mandate to talk to MPs and the local authority to try and improve the conditions in Hampshire’s estimated 600 brothels. The chief of police and even the local Roman Catholic bishop came out in support, but when they sent it to the WI’s National Federation in June [2008] as an urgent national resolution, it was rejected.” Jean continues her courageous campaign, but when nearly eight thousand members voted FOR a resolution which the ‘National Federation’ rejected, it raises the question - how democratic is the Women’s Institute National Federation?
Jean Johnson's fight to legalise prostitution