Linking lively-minded women

It all started in 1960 with one letter to the press, and three inspiring women: Mary Stott, Betty Jerman and Maureen Nicol OBE In 2010 the National Women’s Register celebrates 50 years It is an organisation that continues to satisfy the needs of thousands of independently-minded women, providing a lively and social forum for discussion and debate. Currently, there are over 7000 members with an age range of 25 to 92. Over the 50 years, close to 50,000 women have benefited from the opportunities to share and discuss opinions and ideas in the surroundings of their own homes and from the lifelong friendships that have developed.

NWR was conceived, as the NHR (National Housewives Register),
on 26th February 1960 when Guardian journalist Betty Jerman wrote an article in which she said:

‘Suburbia is an incredibly dull place to live in….’

Betty struck a chord with Maureen Nicol, who replied suggesting that:

‘housebound wives with liberal interests and a desire to remain individuals could form a national register, so that whenever one moves one can contact like-minded friends.’

The overwhelming reaction showed a genuine, urgent and widespread need.

The National Housewives Register was born with the support of Mary Stott, innovative Editor of the Guardian Women’s page.

Then - and Now
Maureen Nicol said of the 1960 start - ‘We stayed at home willingly, feeling guilty and somewhat confused at emotions of occasional boredom and frequent frustration’. When the Register was launched it took off with amazing speed.
This was new: a generation of women wanting more than ‘women’s interests’ and not finding it in the home or the then existing women’s organisations. Within the first few months Maureen was interviewed on radio and television, and by most of the press.
NWR may have been a major source of social change, but at its heart it still offers a welcoming smile for people who need it and Maureen Nicol (OBE), still an active member of the Kenilworth Group, is as appreciative of that now as ever she was:
‘I shall be forever grateful to NWR for so many years of friendship, laughter, arguments and real female bonding. I can sometimes hardly believe my luck to have been in the right place at the right time to have given a starting push to an organisation that has benefited so many women and in doing so to have enriched my own life for fifty years.’
Maureen Nicol OBE is available for interviews again during the Golden Year.
Contact the NWR Office: office@nwr.org.uk Tel: 0845 450 0287
Or visit www.nwr.org.uk

Current Structure…
NWR is run by a paid team of five women, who are overseen by a Board of five Trustees:
• Communications Co-ordinator, Mary Dodkins
• Membership Co-ordinator, Kathryn Buckman
• Finance Manager, Nicole Iles
• Office Administrators, Samantha Bushell and Angela Norman
The trustees and staff ensure that the organisation remains true to its original aims to educate women and to expand their horizons whilst improving their confidence and offering chances to make new friends. In short – it still offers all the members their own