7 ‘Industrial unionism for women’
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Matt Perry
Abstract
Perry’s chapter focuses on another important woman organiser, Ellen Wilkinson. Best known as a leading figure in the 1936 Jarrow March and as Education Secretary under Attlee’s government, her First World War organising has largely been forgotten. But as national organiser for the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees, Wilkinson had particular responsibility for recruiting new female entrants into the workforce. She fought for ‘substituted’ female labour (replacement on grounds of equivalent skills and hence justifying equal pay for equal work) as opposed to ‘dilution’ (replacing skilled labour with less skilled, and hence less pay).
Abstract
Perry’s chapter focuses on another important woman organiser, Ellen Wilkinson. Best known as a leading figure in the 1936 Jarrow March and as Education Secretary under Attlee’s government, her First World War organising has largely been forgotten. But as national organiser for the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees, Wilkinson had particular responsibility for recruiting new female entrants into the workforce. She fought for ‘substituted’ female labour (replacement on grounds of equivalent skills and hence justifying equal pay for equal work) as opposed to ‘dilution’ (replacing skilled labour with less skilled, and hence less pay).
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- List of abbreviations xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Peace, but not at any price 17
- 2 At the crossroads 35
- 3 ‘One of the most revolutionary proposals that has ever been put before the House’ 56
- 4 Labour and socialism during the First World War in Bristol and Northampton 73
- 5 A stronghold of liberalism? The north-east Lancashire cotton weaving districts and the First World War 91
- 6 Living through war, waging peace 108
- 7 ‘Industrial unionism for women’ 126
- 8 The unsung heroines of radical wartime activism 145
- 9 Charlie Chaplin’s war 166
- 10 Irish Labour and the ‘Co-operative Commonwealth’ in the era of the First World War 182
- 11 Russia’s war and revolutions as seen by Morgan Philips Price and Arthur Henderson 201
- 12 The Stanford connection 220
- 13 The problem of war aims and the Treaty of Versailles 240
- Index 257
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- List of abbreviations xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Peace, but not at any price 17
- 2 At the crossroads 35
- 3 ‘One of the most revolutionary proposals that has ever been put before the House’ 56
- 4 Labour and socialism during the First World War in Bristol and Northampton 73
- 5 A stronghold of liberalism? The north-east Lancashire cotton weaving districts and the First World War 91
- 6 Living through war, waging peace 108
- 7 ‘Industrial unionism for women’ 126
- 8 The unsung heroines of radical wartime activism 145
- 9 Charlie Chaplin’s war 166
- 10 Irish Labour and the ‘Co-operative Commonwealth’ in the era of the First World War 182
- 11 Russia’s war and revolutions as seen by Morgan Philips Price and Arthur Henderson 201
- 12 The Stanford connection 220
- 13 The problem of war aims and the Treaty of Versailles 240
- Index 257
