The Women's Labour League (WLL) was a pressure organisation, founded in London in 1906, to promote the political representation of women in parliament and local bodies. The idea was first suggested by Mary Macpherson, a linguist and journalist who had connections with the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, and was taken up by several notable socialist women, including Margaret MacDonald, Ada Salter, Marion Phillips and

Margaret Bondfield Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a priv ...

. The League's inaugural conference was held in Leicester, with representatives of branches in London, Leicester, Preston and Hull. It was affiliated to the Labour Party. Margaret MacDonald acted as the League's president, while both Margaret Bondfield and Marion Phillips served at times as its organising secretary. Much of the League's campaigning effort was devoted to the issue of women's suffrage. In 1913 the League decided that its membership of the

Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...

(WSPU) was incompatible with socialism, as the WSPU itself withdrew from its origins within the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...

and shifted to the right under Christabel Pankhurst's anti-socialist direction. When the

Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) was an act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The act extended the franchise in pa ...

gave a partial women's franchise, the League decided to disband as an independent organisation. It became the women's section of the Labour Party, which had reorganised under a new constitution that year. The Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the

People's History Museum The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the United Kingdom's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of wor ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

holds the records of the Women's Labour League in their collection.

Members of the Executive

The following were members of the executive of the Women's Labour League: *Bertha Ayles *Jennie Baker appears in the 1901 Census at 24 Victoria Avenue Stockon on Tees shown as a Socialist Health Lecturer aged 36 with her husband a trade union organiser *Miss Bell *Miss Bellamy * Ethel Bentham *

* Katharine Bruce Glasier *Marion Curran * Charlotte Despard *Louise Donaldson * Mary Gawthorpe * Florence Harrison Bell * Mabel Hope *F. James *Edith Kerrison *Mary Longman * Eveline Lowe * Mary Macarthur * Margaret MacDonald *Miss McKenzie * Clarice McNab *Mary Macpherson *Edith Macrosty * Mary Middleton *Mary Muir *Minnie Nodin * Marion Phillips *Edith Rigby * Ada Salter *Grace Scholefield *Lisbeth Simm *Margaret Smith * Maud Ward

Notable members

* Agnes Dollan * Annie Huggett

References

Social democracy Democratic socialism Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom Women's organisations based in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1906 1906 establishments in England Organisations associated with the Labour Party (UK) Women's wings of political parties in the United Kingdom {{UK-poli-stub

Members of the Executive

Notable members

See also

References