| Description | Minutes of the Warwickshire North Women's Monthly Meeting were kept from 1729. See SF/2 for a description of the functions of the Women's Monthly Meeting prior to 1893.
In May 1889, a proposal by the Men's Monthly Meeting was put forward to the Women's Meeting, suggesting that they should hold joint Monthly Meetings before commencing their separate Monthly Meetings. The matter was considered by the women Friends and it was agreed that they would trial this for twelve months. In September 1890, they appointed a committee to review the situation and it was decided from October that year to hold the Women's Monthly Meetings four times a year, instead of monthly, as there was insufficient business for more regular meetings because the majority of business was dealt with by the joint meeting. In April 1893, concerns were raised about the increasingly low attendance of these Women's Meetings since joint men's and women's Monthly Meetings had started. As there was reluctance to bring the holding of the Women's meeting to a close, it was decided, after consultation with women from the Preparative Meetings, that the Women's Meeting should have a different function. It was agreed that three or four 'Conferences of the Women Friends of Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting' would be held per year, during which papers would be given on a specific subject, followed by discussion. It was later decided that each year, one conference would be allocated to providing an account of the Yearly Meeting for those who had not attended, one conference was to relate to a topic of concern for the Society of Friends and one was to be of more general interest. These meetings continued until the Second World War, at which point one meeting was held per year. Additional meetings resumed after the war. Speakers were occasionally external, but generally came from within the Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting, and were directly involved in the subjects they presented to the conference. The notes from the conferences provide an insight into the issues which were of concern to Quakers over the period 1894 - 1960. See SF/2/1/1/3/1/7-10 for details of the subjects discussed.
Among others, members of the Wilson, Albright, Cadbury, Littleboy, Gibbins, Sturge, Southall, King, Impey, Barrow, and Lloyd families attended the Women's Meeting and gave papers at the Women's Conferences. |