A Woman's Place... Part 1 : 1884 - 1966
August 2019
This is Part 1 of a short history of women in the Labour Party and movement at large. It was partly inspired (you could say born out of) a conversation with my MP John Cryer who mentioned how we should celebrate women in Labour history. John cited, for example, that not a lot of people know that Margaret Bondfield became the first woman minister in a Labour Government in 1929.
The ongoing quest for women's equality with men has long been inseparable from the Labour movement. In his 1905 speech, “The Citizenship of Women: A Plea for Women’s Suffrage”, Keir Hardie said – “It is only by removing the disabilities and restraints imposed upon woman; and permitting her to enter freely into competition with man in every sphere of human activity, that her true position and function in the economy of life will ultimately be settled.”
In the early days of Labour, Hardie’s main male feminist ally was George Lansbury MP, who was horrified by the force-feeding of suffragettes. In one parliamentary encounter, Lansbury exclaimed at Prime Minister Herbert Asquith (while shaking his fist at Asquith’s face) : “You will go down in history as the man who tortured innocent women! It is perfectly disgusting!”
Because of this outburst, Lansbury was ushered out of the chamber “amid a cheer of relief” from other MPs. If only a video existed of Lansbury’s performance on that day...
Included in this article are lots of dates (that you can use as a starting board to find out more) and 2 short biographies of Beatrice Webb and Margaret Bondfield.
Part 2 will carry on from 1966.
Brian Madican
August 2019
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1884 TUC conference voted in support of female suffrage
1888 TUC conference called for equal pay for women.
1893 Independent Labour Party (ILP) was founded at Bradford conference. Many women, including Mary Macarthur, Margaret Bondfield, Enid Stacey, Katherine St John Conway (later Glasier), Margaret Macmillan, Caroline Martin and Emmeline Pankhurst, are among later prominent members.
1894 ILP conference voted in support of female suffrage.
1902 I.O. Ford of Leeds ILP became the first woman delegate at a Labour Representation Committee (LRC) conference.
1904 LRC conference supported a Women’s Enfranchisement Bill on the grounds that it would benefit middle and upper class women while many men remain disenfranchised.
1906 Women’s Labour League was established to secure direct representation for woman in Parliament and local councils.
1912 ILP member Emmeline Pankhurst proposed Labour MPs should withhold support from the Liberal government until it granted votes to women. Labour conference agreed to oppose any franchise bill that extended votes to more men, but excluded women.
George Lansbury resigned as MP for Bow and Bromley to fight a by-election in support of female suffrage and was defeated.
Ramsay MacDonald attacked violent methods used by supporters of female suffrage.
1916 The Standing Joint Committee of Working Women’s Organisations (which included the Labour Party National Executive, TUC and Co-operative Union) was set up to formulate policy, mount campaigns and secure representation of women on government committees.
1918 Women’s Labour League amalgamated with the Party to form basis of Women’s Sections established under Labour’s new Constitution.
1919 Beatrice Webb’s Men and Women’s Wages : Should they be Equal? was published.
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Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield 1858 –1943, was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term collective bargaining. She was among the founders of the London School of Economics in 1895 and played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society.
In 1890 Beatrice was introduced to Sidney Webb, whose help she sought with her research. They married in 1892, and until her death 51 years later shared political and professional activities.
The original version of Clause IV was drafted by the Webbs in November 1917 and adopted by the Labour party in 1918. It read, in part 4:
“To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.”
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1922 Following Labour successes in the general election, Beatrice Webb formed the Half-Circle Club for the wives of Labour MPs. It was later absorbed into the Parliamentary Labour Club.
1923 Margaret Bondfield and Susan Lawrence were elected as the first women Labour MPs at the December general election.
1924 In January, three women MPs were made members of the 12-strong Liaison Committee to maintain contact between the Parliamentary Labour Party and the first Labour government.
In May, a Labour women’s deputation asked the Minister of Health to end the ban on local authorities giving information on contraception.
One woman Labour MP was returned at the October general election.
1925 Labour Party National Executive (aware of Catholic sensitivities) reported to annual conference that contraception should be regarded as an individual matter on which the Party cannot have a view.
1929 Nine women Labour MPs were returned at the May general election.
Margaret Bondfield became the first woman minister as Minister of Labour. Susan Lawrence became the first woman chair of the Labour National Executive.
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Margaret Bondfield 1873 – 1953 was born in humble circumstances. After she had served an apprenticeship to an embroidress she worked as a shop assistant in Brighton and London. She was shocked by the working conditions of shop staff and became an active member of the shopworkers' union.
She began to move in socialist circles, and in 1898 was appointed assistant secretary of the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks (NAUSAWC). She was later prominent in several women's socialist movements: she helped to found the Women’s Labour League (WLL) in 1906, and was chair of the Adult Suffrage Society.
After leaving her union post in 1908 Bondfield worked as organising secretary for the WLL and later as women's officer for the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (NUGMW). She was elected to the TUC Council in 1918, and became its chairman in 1923, the year she was first elected to parliament. In the short-lived minority Labour government of 1924 she served as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Labour.
Her term of cabinet office in 1929–31 was marked by the economic crises that beset the second Labour government. Her willingness to contemplate cuts in unemployment benefits alienated her from much of the Labour movement, although she did not follow Ramsay MacDonald into the National Government that assumed office when the Labour government fell in August 1931. Bondfield remained active in NUGMW affairs until 1938, and during the Second World War carried out investigations for the Women's Group on Public Welfare.
Despite her years of service to party and union, and her successes in breaking through gender boundaries, she has not been greatly honoured within the Labour movement.
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1931 No woman MPs were returned at the October general election which followed the formation of the National Government.
1935 One woman Labour MP was returned at the November general election.
1936 Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson lead the Jarrow unemployed march in October.
1945 Twenty one Labour MPs were returned at the July election in a Labour landslide. Bessie Braddock was the first woman to be elected to a Liverpool seat. Ellen Wilkinson became the first woman Minister of Education.
1948 In May, the National Assistance Act allowed support for unmarried mothers and children.
In July, the British Nationality of Women Act allowed British women the right to retain citizenship when marrying foreign men, but withdrew the right of foreign women to automatic citizenship when marrying British men.
1949 The Party programme “Labour believes in Britain” proposed equal pay for women.
1950 Fourteen woman Labour MPs were returned at the February general election.
1951 The TUC conference called for equal pay for women.
Eleven women MPs were returned at the October election.
1955 Fourteen woman Labour MPs were returned at the May general election.
1959 Thirteen woman Labour MPs were returned at the October general election.
1964 Eighteen woman Labour MPs were returned at the October general election.
Barbara Castle was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Overseas Development.
1966 Nineteen woman Labour MPs were returned at the March general election.
Part 2 will carry on from 1966.
Solidarity
Brian Madican
August 2019