Women's Pioneer Housing is a British

housing association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, Non-profit organization, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budge ...

founded in 1920, the first dedicated to housing single women.

History

Women's Pioneer Housing was founded in 1920, to help provide housing for the new generation of single, professional women in London following the First World War. It was founded by Etheldred Browning a former Irish suffragist who had run the women’s section of the Garden City and Town Planning Association (GCTPA). Other founding members included Geraldine Lennox of the

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(WSPU), Lady Rhondda, and

Ray Strachey Ray Strachey (born Rachel Pearsall Conn Costelloe; 4 June 188716 July 1940) was a British feminist politician, artist and writer. Early life Her father was Irish barrister Benjamin "Frank" Conn Costelloe, and her mother was art historian Mary ...

. Sydney Mary Bushell, a member of the executive committee of the GCTPA and hon sec of their women’s section, was also a founder. They incorporated Women's Pioneer Housing as a public utility company on 4 October 1920 ‘to cater for the housing requirements of professional and other women of moderate means who require individual homes at moderate rents’. They raised money to purchase its first property, 167

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, in 1921. By 1936 they had 36 properties, primarily in west London and one in Brighton, run on a co-operative basis. Skilled women contractors were central to the organisation's development, including the architect

Gertrude Leverkus Gertrude Leverkus (26 September 1898 – 8 November 1989) was a German-British architect. Early life and education Gertrude Wilhelmine Margaret Leverkus was born on 26 September 1898 in Oldenburg, Germany. She was the second of three daughters o ...

and the first woman chartered accountants, Ethel Watts and Miriam Homesham. Etheldred Browning ran the organisation until her retirement in 1938.

Housing provision

Women's Pioneer Housing is still active as a social housing provider for women, with offices at

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, west London. The Chief Executive since 2022 is Tracey Downie, former Executive Director of Housing Management at Homes for Haringey. It is registered as a Co-operative & Community Benefit Society with the

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and as a Registered Social Landlord with the

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. It continues to house single women, mostly now nominated by local authorities. Plans for a new housing development at the organisation's base in Wood Lane were announced in 2019. After public consultation the revised plans were granted planning permission in November 2022. As of 2019, it was exploring a possible merger with Housing for Women. The organisation celebrated its centenary in 2020, with an exhibition ''Pioneering Courage: Housing and the Working Woman'' ''1919 – 1939'' based on three years of research into their history.

References

{{reflist Housing associations 1920 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1920 Feminist organisations in the United Kingdom First-wave feminism in the United Kingdom Women's organisations based in the United Kingdom Social history of the United Kingdom Suffragettes Women in London