The years leading up to the First World War were exciting and successful times for women’s trade unionism. Membership was on the increase; more female trade unionists were in positions of leadership, both at a local and national level; and the many issues facing women workers were beginning to gain public attention. There was every reason to believe that the years ahead held just as much promise. However, the inter-war years would prove to be a period of decline, and great frustration, for women’s trade unionism in Britain.
The First World War had a dramatic impact on the British economy and its industries. With millions of men in the armed forces, large numbers of women entered the workforce for the first time, working in munitions, production and transportation. However, on entering these new types of employment, many female workers were confronted with long hours, poor pay and, quite often, dangerous working conditions.
Prominent women trade unionists, such as Mary Macarthur of the National Federation of Women Workers (N.F.W.W.), urged female workers to join a union. Union representatives were in a position to negotiate with employers and the government for better pay and conditions for women workers. The union recruitment drives were very successful. For example, in 1914 the number of women recorded as being members of a trade union stood at 433,679. By 1918 this figure had increased threefold to 1,209,278.
At the War’s conclusion women’s unions were in a strong position. However, many of the largest women’s organisations now turned their attention to the process of amalgamating with men’s trade unions in order to prevent men and women in the same industries working towards different goals. One such women’s union which made this decision was the N.F.W.W. It met with the National Union of General Workers (N.U.G.W.) between July 1919 and 1921 to discuss the process. At this time the N.F.W.W.’s financial condition was strong as it had assets of £31,000. Moreover, in December 1919 its membership stood at 80,000 which was double that of the N.U.G.W. The merger went ahead in 1921, with the organisation being renamed the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (N.U.G.M.W.) in 1924.
Two other significant general unions also emerged at this time as a result of amalgamation between men and women’s unions; the Transport and General Workers Union (T.G.W.U.) and the Workers’ Union (W.U.). The T.G.W.U. and W.U. amalgamated in 1929. Similarly, the work of the Women’s Trade Union League was taken over by the Trade Union Congress (T.U.C.).
Initially this level of recognition from male trade unionists was regarded as a remarkable achievement, for it had not been long ago that the organisation of women had been regarded as a hopeless cause. However, some women trade union leaders quickly began to question the merits of amalgamation, mainly due to the negative effect it seemed to have on female membership. For example, the number of female members in general unions declined from 191,000 in 1918 to 43,000 in 1923. This was a decrease of 75%. Indeed, the inter-war years marked a decline in female membership throughout the movement as a whole. Whereas in 1918 1.2 million women had been unionised, in 1933 the figure stood at just 0.7 million.
A number of factors were responsible for this decline in membership. A decrease was to be expected as many women had left paid employment and returned to the home following the end of the War. Nevertheless, a slump of this scale was alarming, as was the inability of the movement to attract new women members. Moreover, for those members that remained, there was a great deal of apathy due to the minor part that women seemed to play in the management of general unions. For example, in 1921 six large mixed unions with a female membership of between 10,000 to 175,000 had no women organisers at all; five large unions had one; while only two had sixteen or more. Women’s influence also declined locally as women officers died or resigned and were replaced by men. A final factor that made female membership decline was that the recruitment of new male members always took priority over that of women.
There were also factors outside the unions that had an adverse effect on women’s membership. The years between the wars were characterised by high unemployment and the decline of many of Britain’s traditional heavy industries such as ship building and coal mining. For example, by December 1930 2.5 million people were out of work, with men representing the majority of the unemployed. From 1929 to 1932 the number of males who were employed fell by 11%, while the number of females declined by only 3.1%. Such figures grabbed the attention of the media and politicians and led to a situation where women workers were made the scapegoats for unemployment.
Women were accused of taking jobs from male breadwinners who had families to support. It was rarely taken into account that some women had no choice but to work; many had been left widowed by the War or could not marry because of a shortage of men. They had no male wage earner to depend on and did not have the privilege of returning to the home even if that was what they wanted. Nevertheless, the needs of women continued to be relegated to a lower priority than those of male members.
The accusations levelled at women workers were also unjust as they did not tend to work in the same industries as men. Indeed, many women in the Midlands and the South East worked in industries that had developed following the War. These new or ‘light’ industries specialising in the manufacture of electrical appliances, synthetic fibres, chemicals, cars and bicycles, and together they recruited over a million and a half women workers during the period 1919-39. The women in these industries worked long hours and usually for low wages. For example, women working in the electro-plating factories of the Midlands often earned as little as 10s for a 55 hour week.
Despite the rising number of women in light industry, the formal labour movement expressed little interest in recruiting them. By July 1933 only one out of seven women workers was in a union. Eventually the T.U.C. acknowledged that something had to be done to end this decline in female membership. Therefore, the TUC General Council established the National Women’s Advisory Committee (W.A.C.) of the T.U.C. In 1931 Julia Varley, who by this time, was elderly and almost blind, was appointed chairperson of the W.A.C. When Varley retired in 1933 she was replaced by Nancy Adams. She was successful in raising the status of the W.A.C. and worked full-time on matters affecting the welfare and organisation of women.
In 1936 the TUC General Council also began a ‘Back to Unions’ campaign. This involved the distribution of leaflets, posters, a monthly newsletter and providing speakers to the Trade Councils. A number of articles promoting trade unionism among women were also carried by Reynolds’ News, Daily Herald, Star and Radio Pictorial.
It was an improvement in economic conditions, rather than union recruitment efforts, which led to an eventual increase in women’s trade union membership. By 1939 the women’s trade union movement had made good the losses it suffered after the War and stood at 1,010,000. However, it was to be a long time before female trade unionists were to regain the public prominence they had enjoyed in the heyday of independent women’s trade unionism in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
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| Reference: | 759 |
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| Updated: | Wed 9 Jul 2008 - 10 |
| Interpretation written by | Lynn Sinclair |
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