Abstract
This chapter examines the development of one Federation branch in the Midlands of England. Coventry is not presented as a typical branch, for within a trade union consisting of members from so many trades there was no such thing. It was, however, one of the longest running branches, founded in 1907 and surviving until and beyond the merger with the NUGW in 1921. It is not just its longevity that earns it inclusion here; the story of its development adds important detail to what is known about public attitudes towards women industrial workers in Britain during a period when women began to move out of traditional ‘suitable’ work into the new industries claimed by men as their own. It allows us a little nearer to an understanding of the lives of Federation members by looking at the industries that employed them, by following the progress of disputes and by considering the relationship between the branch activists and local labour politics.
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Notes
Charles Bray (1857) The Industrial Employment of Women (London, Longman)
These ideas are explored by Anna Davin in ‘Imperialism and Motherhood’ in History Workshop Journal, 5 (Spring, 1978) pp. 9–65
David Thoms & Tom Donnelly (1986) ‘Coventry’s Industrial Economy, 1880–1980’, in Bill Lancaster & Tony Mason (eds) Life and Labour in a 20th Century City: The Experience of Coventry (Coventry, Cryfield Press), p. 12
Frederick Smith (1945) Coventry, 600 Years of Municipal Life, City of Coventry, p. 171
Brad Beaven & John Griffiths (2004) ‘Urban Elites, Socialists and Notions of Citizenship in an Industrial Boomtown: Coventry, c 1870–1914 in Labour History Review 69 (1), April 2004, pp. 3–18
Mary E. Dreier (1921) ‘Expansion Through Agitation and Education’ in Life and Labor, June 1921, cited in Boone, Women’s Trade Union Leagues in Great Britain and the United States of America, p. 164
Frank Carr (1978) ‘Engineering Workers and the Rise of Labour’, PhD, University of Warwick, p. 31; WU Record, November 1918
Frank Carr (1978) ‘Engineering Workers and the Rise of Labour’, PhD, University of Warwick, p. 37
Anderson & Markham (1916) Report on Industrial Welfare Conditions in Coventry, Advisory Committee on Women’s War Employment (Industrial), WWS/IWM EMP.45
John A. Yates (1950) Pioneers to Power (Coventry, Coventry Labour Party), p. 62; The Times, 1 December 1917
MDT, 1 December 1918; The Women’s Party (the re-named WSPU) was launched by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst in the autumn of 1917 with the patriotic slogan ‘Victory, National Security and Progress’. See June Purvis (2002) Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography (London, Routledge) p. 301
Jeffrey Haydu (1988) Between Craft and Class: Skilled Workers and Factory Politics in the United States and Britain, 1890–1922 (Berkeley, University of California Press), p. 160
Marjorie Lodge (1986) ‘Aspects of Infant Welfare in Coventry 1900–40’ in Lancaster & Mason, Life and Labour
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© 2014 Cathy Hunt
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Hunt, C. (2014). Coventry: A Case Study. In: The National Federation of Women Workers, 1906–1921. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137033543_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137033543_7
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