Not for the first time, a row has broken out in the Women's Institute. Leading member Stephanie Gaunt, an East Sussex trustee, posted a blog taking aim at younger, radical WI groups who "do not represent the future I'd like to see for the WI". She pointed to London group the Shoreditch Sisters, who knitted a 'solidarity' blanket for women in Yarl's Wood Female Detention Centre, writing: "Is this any more commendable or interesting than the thousands upon thousands of WI women who quietly get on with knitting clothes for premature babies?"

Tussles, tensions, difference and reinvention have enabled the WI to remain relevant to women for more than 100 years - and the debate over a domestic vs political...