The National Assembly of Women (NAW) is a British

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

organisation founded on 8 March 1952, at a meeting of almost 1,500 women from all across

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. It campaigns for equal status for women and men in all aspects of life and also for peace and an end to poverty worldwide. It is affiliated to the

Women's International Democratic Federation Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) is an international organization with the stated goal of working for women's rights. It was established in 1945 and was most active during the Cold War. It initially focussed on anti-fascism, worl ...

History

The National Assembly of Women was a product of the involvement of

Women in World War II Women took on many different roles during World War II, including as combatants and workers on the home front. The war involved global conflict on an unprecedented scale; the absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire population made the expansio ...

; as a result of their extensive work to fill jobs previously undertaken by men, women were left with changed expectations for their role in the world, including dreams for full-time employment and equal pay. Following

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

's 1946 speech heralding the onset of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, women became more and more aware that there was no existing space for their concerns and response to political events. Campaigns across Britain by the

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

Committee led to an Inaugural Meeting of the National Assembly of Women at St. Pancras Town Hall in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on 8 March 1952, with 1,396 delegates from Wales, Scotland, Tee-side, Bradford, Halifax, Leeds, Lancashire and Yorkshire. These delegates represented a total of 549,700 women from women's organisations and guilds. Four delegates from the Soviet Union who had planned to attend were refused visas by Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, Home Secretary, and two women from Italy were denied entry to the country when they reached Dover.Tebbs, Betty. ''A Short History of the National Assembly of Women.'' Manchester, UK: National Assembly of Women, 1993. Women who gathered at the initial meeting were united against the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, against the rise of cost-of-living, and for peace,

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as n ...

, and an increase in women in parliament. The women passed a resolution to highlight that women's labor was still being exploited 30 years after support for the principle of equal pay.

Monica Felton Monica Felton (1906 – March 1970) was a British writer, town planner, feminist and social activist, a member of the Labour Party. Early life Monica Glory Page (later Felton) was born in 1906, the eldest of four siblings, Una Hilary (b. 1908 ...

chaired the meeting, and

Charlotte Marsh Charlotte Augusta Leopoldine Marsh (3 March 1887 – 21 April 1961), known as Charlie Marsh, was a militant British suffragette. She was a paid organiser of the Women's Social and Political Union and is one of the first women to be force fed ...

gave a speech.{{Cite news, date=8 March 1952, work=The Guardian, page=8

Meetings

A second Assembly was held in 1953, and then women came together for a 1955 National Assembly in which they took part in a 17,000 person demonstration against German re-armament. In 1975, the National Assembly of Women collaborated with the

to host a global seminar in London, with representatives from Eastern and Western Europe as well as South Africa. The Assembly holds Biennial General Meetings to elect Officers and Executives, who are responsible for the work of the organisation and meet every two months.

Organising work

Considered by some to be a communist-affiliated organisation,“Britain: Greenham Red-Baiting.” ''Off Our Backs'', vol. 17, no. 10, 1987, pp. 10–10. ''JSTOR'', JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25795955. members of the National Assembly of Women primary advocated for peace and peace-related causes; they also fought for better education, health care, pensions, and childcare. They supported the Lamaze progressive birthing technique. In 1975, they submitted opinions on the Equal Pay Act and Employment Protection Act to the government. In 1987, the National Assembly of Women took 102 delegates to the Congress in Moscow; the Assembly was responsible for distributing invitations to British women for the Moscow Congress, and invited a few members of the

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began on 5 September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life on ...

. The organisation publishes a quarterly journal, ''SISTERS'' (Sisters In Solidarity to End Racism and Sexism).

Location

Its headquarters were originally at 283

Gray's Inn Road Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at the City of London boundary, where it bisects High Holborn, and ends at King's Cross and ...

, but are now in

Cullercoats Cullercoats is a coastal settlement in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, North East England. Historically in Northumberland, it has now been absorbed into the wider Tyneside conurbation, sitting between Tynemouth to the ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

References

External links

NAW website
Feminist organisations in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1952 Women's organisations based in the United Kingdom Women's rights organizations 1952 establishments in the United Kingdom