Co-operative Women's Guild

The Co-operative Women's Guild, founded in 1883, was an auxiliary organisation of the co-operative movement in the United Kingdom that promoted women in co-operative structures and provided social and other services to its members.

History

The guild was founded in 1883 by Alice Acland, who edited the "Women's Corner" of the Co-operative News, and Mary Lawrenson, a teacher who suggested the creation of an organization to promote instructional and recreational classes for mothers and girls. Acland began organizing a Women's League for the Spread of Co-operation, which held its first formal meeting of 50 women at the 1883 Co-operative Congress in Edinburgh and established local branches.^[1] It began as an organization dedicated to spreading the co-operative movement, but soon expanded beyond the retail-based focus of the movement to organizing political campaigns on women's issues including health and suffrage.^[2] Annie Williams, a suffragette organiser for the Women's Social and Political Union in Newcastle found in 1910 that "Co-operative women are very keen to know about 'Votes for Women'."^[3]

In 1884, the league changed its name to the Women's Co-operative Guild and later to the Co-operative Women's Guild. In 1899, Margaret Llewelyn Davies was elected general secretary of the Guild and was widely credited with greatly increasing the success of the Guild.^[4] By 1910, it had 32,000 members. Maternity benefits were included in the National Insurance Act 1911 because of the guild's pressure. The guild became more politically active, and expanded its work beyond the British Isles; their objectives included the establishment of minimum wages and maternity benefits, and in April 1914 they were involved in an International Women's Congress at The Hague, which passed a resolution totally opposing war:

this Conference is of opinion that the terrible method of war should never again be used to settle disputes between nations, and urge that a partnership of nations, with peace as its object, should be established and enforced by the people's will.

After World War I, the guild became more involved in peace activism, concentrating especially on the social and political conditions that encouraged or gave rise to war, as well as opposition to the arms trade. In 1933 they introduced the White Poppy as a pacifist alternative to the British Legion's annual red poppy appeal. At this time membership of the guild was at its peak, with 1,500 branches and 72,000 members.

The guild continued with several local branches, although it did not have the visibility within the co-operative movement that it once did. It closed after 133 years on 25 June 2016.

General secretaries

1883: Alice Acland

1885: Mary Lawrenson

1889: Margaret Llewelyn Davies

1922: Honora Enfield

1927: Eleanor Barton

1937: Rose Simpson

1940: Cecily Cook

1953: Mabel Ridealgh

1963: Kathleen Kempton

1983: Diane Paskin

Sue Bell

2005: Claire Morgan

2011: Colette Harber

References

^ Gaffin, Jean; Thomas, David (1983). Caring & Sharing: The Centenary History of the Co-operative Women's Guild. Manchester: Co-operative Union. ISBN 978-0-85-195133-1 – via Internet Archive.
^ "Records of the Women's Cooperative Guild (Cooperative Women's Guild)". Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2006). The women's suffrage movement in Britain and Ireland a regional survey. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-203-39018-4. OCLC 1086463042.
^ Blaszak, Barbara J. (2000). Matriarchs of the movement : female leadership and gender politics within the English cooperative movement. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313309953.

External links

[1] Gaffin, Jean; Thomas, David (1983). Caring & Sharing: The Centenary History of the Co-operative Women's Guild. Manchester: Co-operative Union. ISBN 978-0-85-195133-1 – via Internet Archive.

[2] "Records of the Women's Cooperative Guild (Cooperative Women's Guild)". Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2013.

[3] Crawford, Elizabeth (2006). The women's suffrage movement in Britain and Ireland a regional survey. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-203-39018-4. OCLC 1086463042.

[matriarch-4] Blaszak, Barbara J. (2000). Matriarchs of the movement : female leadership and gender politics within the English cooperative movement. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313309953.

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