The Married Women's Association (MWA) was a British women's organisation founded by

Edith Summerskill Edith Clara Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill, (19 April 1901 – 4 February 1980) was a British physician, feminist, Labour politician and writer. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1949. Early life Summerskill attended Eltham Hill ...

and Juanita Frances in 1938. It was the first UK twentieth century

pressure group Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...

to focus on the rights of housewives via the goal of legal and economic equality for spouses, and the consideration of undervalued childcare and work done in the home with its resultant financial consequences for women after divorce. The organisation's previously unexplored influence on the course of

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriag ...

, especially on the Married Women's Property Act of 1964, a landmark in the timeline of women's equality, is now recognised.

History and legacy

A married woman in the UK in the early twentieth century did have the right to vote but did not have property rights in the matrimonial home, nor any right to savings made from housekeeping monies given to her by her husband. Attempts had been made by the Equal Rights International Group (ERIG) for an Equal Rights Treaty to be incorporated within the ERIG constitution of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. The attempts failed. Juanita Frances then set up the non-party and non-sectarian MWA. Summerskill became the association's first president. Later presidents included Vera Brittain and Juanita Frances. Its original aims were to promote financial equality between husband and wife, to give mothers and children a legal right to a share in the family home, to secure equal guardianship rights for both parents, and to extend the

National Insurance Act The National Insurance Act 1911 ( 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 55) created National Insurance, originally a system of health insurance for industrial workers in Great Britain based on contributions from employers, the government, and the workers themselves. ...

to give equal provision for women. Later on, other objectives were added such as equal pay and the extension of family allowances. The association held public meetings, debates, social activities, lobbied members of parliament and published the newsletters ''Wife and Citizen'' from 1945 to 1951 and ''The Married Women's Association Newsletter'' from 1966 to 1987. Prominent members included

Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Fir ...

, Juanita Frances,

Doreen Gorsky Doreen Marjorie Gorsky née Doreen Stephens (12 October 1912 – 20 March 2001), was a British Liberal Party politician, feminist and television producer and executive who during her career specialised in women's and children's programmes. Back ...

Helena Normanton Helena Florence Normanton, Queen's Counsel, QC (14 December 1882 – 14 October 1957) was the first female barrister in the United Kingdom. In November 1922, she was the second woman to be call to the bar, called to the Bar of England and Wales, ...

, Hazel Hunkins Hallinan and Lady Helen Nutting. The quietly persistent tactics used by the MWA, that gradually changed the conversation around, for example, property holdings within marriage, and which were used in the face of press and public derision and ridicule, are being considered see if lessons may be learned by current activists. In 1952

's evidence to the Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce precipitated a split in the association as some members of the MWA felt that the evidence only related to privileged women. The split led to the establishment of the Council of Married Women. The MWA papers are held at the

Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

.Married Women's Association
/ref> A history of the MWA, drawing on extensive archival and empirical research, and treating the tactics and personalities involved in the association was published in 2022.

References

{{reflist Feminism in the United Kingdom Women's organisations based in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1938 Organizations disestablished in 1988 1938 establishments in the United Kingdom 1988 disestablishments in the United Kingdom