Mary Macarthur
Advertisement for Macarthur's drapery shop in the Ayr Advertiser
Mary at the 1906 International Federation of Employees (front right)
A meeting of the Shop Assistants' Union in Ayr, Scotland, was a turning point in Mary Macarthur's life. Until then she had shared her father's Conservative views. She was a member of the Primrose League, an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. But Mary was so affected by what she heard at the meeting, that she started on a path that led to her becoming one of the great personalities in women's trade unionism and the labour movement.
Mary's first job was as a bookkeeper in her father's drapery shop. She also wrote articles for a local newspaper. She was asked to cover a meeting of the Shop Assistants' Union. Mary expected to laugh at what was going on, but was very moved by what she heard. "I went to a meeting in Ayr", she said, "to write a skit on the proceedings, going to scoff, I remained to pray. I became impressed with the truth and meaning of the Labour movement."
John Turner, secretary of the Union, managed to recruit Mary. She later became chairman of the Ayr branch. Within the year she had been elected Scottish President. In 1902 she attended the Annual Conference of the Shop Assistants' Union in Manchester. Here she met Margaret Bondfield, assistant secretary of the Union, and was elected as the first female representative on the Union's national executive.
In 1903 Mary moved to London, intending to get a job as a shop assistant. She stayed with Margaret Bondfield for several weeks, at her tiny flat in Gower Street, sleeping on a sofa bed. Margaret Bondfield could see that Mary was bound for greater things. "Here was a genius, allied to boundless enthusiasm and leadership of a high order, coming to build our little Union into a more effective instrument."
At the same time the Women's Trade Union League was looking for a new secretary. Margaret Bondfield, who was on its General Committee, took Mary to see Gertrude Tuckwell, Honorary secretary and later President of the League. She recalled Mary as, "a tall slip of a thing dressed in black, very silent, but intensely attractive, with that air of subdued excitement which made one feel the air alive all round her." They knew that Mary was the right person for the challenge that faced women's trade unionism, that of not only getting women to join a union, but to carry on with union membership once their grievances had been settled.
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| Updated: | Tue 8 May 2007 - 13 |
| Interpretation written by | Barbara Harris |
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