Women's Labour League
The Women's Labour League was a pressure organisation, founded in London in 1906, to promote the political representation of women in parliament and local bodies.[1] The idea was first suggested by Mary MacPherson, a linguist and journalist who had connections with the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants,[2] and was taken up by several notable socialist women, including Margaret MacDonald, Marion Phillips and Margaret Bondfield.[3][4] 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.[3] Margaret MacDonald acted as the League's president,[5] while both Margaret Bondfield and Marion Phillips served at times as its organising secretary.[6]
Much of the League's campaigning effort was devoted to the issue of women's suffrage. When the Representation of the People Act 1918 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.[3]
The Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the People's History Museum in Manchester holds the records of the Women's Labour League in their collection.[7]
References
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