Published by Primary Source Microfilm

The Women's Labour League was founded in an attempt to obtain direct representation of women in Parliament and on local authorities. Greatly strengthened by the increasingly important role played by women in industry during World War I, the League successfully agitated support for the emancipation of women in Britain in 1918.

Prominent among the League's activists were Margaret Macdonald, Mary Middleton, Dr. Marion Phillips and Katherine Bruce Glasier. The papers reflect the full range of their activities and concerns for their attempts to combat social inequalities to the campaign for better working conditions.

The collection also includes the one surviving book of the Standing Joint Committee of Industrial Women's Organizations for the period February 1916 to September 1917.

The ready availability of this material will be of great value to those concerned with women's studies, labor history, the state of the industry and conditions in Britain during World War I.

This collection also forms the fourth part of Archives of the British Labour Party, General Correspondence and Political Records, Part Four: Minutes and Records of the Women's Labour League, 1906-1918.

38 fiche