margaret bondfield

Margaret Bondeld

Margaret Grace Maggie Bondeld, CH, PC (17March 1873 16 June 1953) was a British Labour politi-cian, trades unionist and womens rights activist. Shebecame the rst female cabinet minister, and the rstwoman to be a privy counsellor, when she was appointedMinister of Labour in the Labour government of 192931. She had earlier become the rst woman to chair theGeneral Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).Bondeld was born in humble circumstances and receivedlimited formal education. After serving an apprentice-ship to an embroidress she worked as a shop assistant inBrighton and London. She was shocked by the workingconditions of shop sta, particularly within the living-in system, and became an active member of the shop-workers union. She began to move in socialist circles,and in 1898 was appointed assistant secretary of the Na-tional Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, andClerks (NAUSAWC). She was later prominent in sev-eral womens socialist movements: she helped to foundthe Womens Labour League (WLL) in 1906, and waschair of the Adult Surage Society. Her standpoint onwomens surageshe favoured extending the vote to alladults regardless of gender or property, rather than thelimited on the same terms as men agenda pursued by themilitant suragistsdivided her from the militant lead-ership.After leaving her union post in 1908 Bondeld worked asorganising secretary for the WLL and later as womensocer for the National Union of General and MunicipalWorkers (NUGMW). She was elected to the TUC Coun-cil in 1918, and became its chairman in 1923, the year shewas rst elected to parliament. In the short-lived minorityLabour government of 1924 she served as parliamentarysecretary to the Ministry of Labour. Her term of cabinetoce in 192931 was marked by the economic crises thatbeset the second Labour government. Her willingness tocontemplate cuts in unemployment benets alienated herfrom much of the Labour movement, although she didnot follow Ramsay MacDonald into the National Govern-ment that assumed oce when the Labour governmentfell in August 1931.Bondeld remained active in NUGMW aairs until1938, and during the Second World War carried out in-vestigations for the Womens Group on Public Welfare.She died in 1953; despite her years of service to partyand union, and her successes in breaking through genderboundaries, she has not been greatly honoured within theLabour movement. According to a later female cabinetminister, Barbara Castle, Bondelds actions in oce had

brought her close to betrayal of the movement.

1 Life

1.1 Childhood and family

A modern (2009) photograph of the main street in Chard, Som-erset, Bondelds home town

Margaret Bondeld was born on 17 March 1873 in theSomerset town of Chard. She was the tenth of elevenchildren, and third of four daughters born to WilliamBondeld and his wife Ann, ne Taylor, the daughter of aCongregational minister.[1][2] William Bondeld workedas a lacemaker, and had a history of political activism. Asa young man he had been secretary of the Chard PoliticalUnion,[3] a centre of local radicalism that the authoritieshad on occasion suppressed by military force.[2][n 1] Hehad also been active in the Anti-Corn Law League of the1840s.[2] Entirely self-educated, he was fascinated by sci-ence and engineering, and was the co-designer of a yingmachine, a prototype of the modern aircraft, that was ex-hibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851.[3]

While Margaret was still an infant, William lost his joband was unable to nd regular work. The family sueredhardship, with the threat of the workhouse a constant fear.Nevertheless William and Ann did their best to ensurethat their children were educated and prepared for life.[5]Margaret was a clever child, whose skills at reciting po-etry or playing piano pieces were often displayed at townevents and Sunday School outings.[6] Until the age of 13she attended the local elementary school; she then workedfor a year as a pupil-teacher (she was paid three shillings aweek) in the schools boys department.[7] Local employ-

1

2 1 LIFE

ment opportunities being scarce, she left Chard in 1887,at the age of 14, to begin an apprenticeship at a drapersshop in Hove, near Brighton.[5]

From an early age, she was known as Maggie and thiscontinued throughout her later career.[8][9]

1.2 Early career

1.2.1 Shop worker

Brighton in the 1890s

Bondeld was apprenticed to a drapery and embroiderybusiness in Church Road, Hove,[10] where the young stawere treated as family members. Relations between cus-tomers and assistants were cordial, and Bondelds laterrecollections of this period were uniformly happy.[11] Herapprenticeship complete, she worked as a living-in assis-tant in a succession of Brighton drapery stores, where shequickly encountered the realities of shop sta life: un-sympathetic employers, very long hours, appalling livingconditions and no privacy.[12] Bondeld reported on herexperiences of living-in: Overcrowded, insanitary con-ditions, poor and insucient food were the main charac-teristics of this system, with an undertone of danger ...In some houses both natural and unnatural vices founda breeding ground.[13] She found some relief from thisenvironment when she was befriended by a wealthy cus-tomer, Louisa Martindale, and her daughter Hilda. TheMartindales, socially conscious liberals and advocates forwomens rights, found Bondeld a willing learner, andlent her books that began her lifelong interest in labourand social questions. Bondeld described Mrs Martin-dale as a most vivid inuence on my life ... she put mein the way of knowledge that has been of help to manyscore of my shop mates.[14]

Bondelds brother Frank had established himself in Lon-don some years earlier as a printer and trades unionist,[15]and in 1894, having saved 5, she decided to join him.She found London shopworking conditions no better thanin Brighton,[16] but through Frank her social and political

Beatrice and SidneyWebb, c. 1895; they were among Bondeldsearly socialist acquaintances

circles widened. She became an active member of theNational Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, andClerks (NUSAWC), sometimes missing church on Sun-days to attend union meetings.[17] Her political and liter-ary education was centred on the Ideal Club, where shemet Bernard Shaw, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Un-der the inuence of these socialist luminaries, she joinedthe Fabian Society and later the Independent LabourParty (ILP).[2][18]

As a shopworker, Bondeld was expected to workbetween 80 and 100 hours a week for 51 weeks in theyear,[19] and might be sent out late at night to checkthat rival shops had closed before her employer woulddo so.[20][n 2] She began to record her experiences, ina series of articles and stories that she wrote underthe pseudonym Grace Dare, for the shopworkersmonthly magazine The Shop Assistant.[16][22] She wrotesurreptitiously, at night: I would light my half-pennydip [candle], hiding its glare by means of a towel andset to work on my monthly article.[23] In 1896 she wasrecruited by the Womens Industrial Council (WIC) asan undercover agent, working in various shops whilesecretly recording every aspect of shop life. Her accountsof squalor and exploitation were published in articlesunder the Grace Dare name, in both The Shop Assistantand the Daily Chronicle newspaper, and provided thebasis for a WIC report on shopworkers conditionspublished in 1898.[24]

1.2.2 Union ocial

In 1898 Bondeld accepted the job of assistant secre-tary of NUSAWC,[2][25] which that year became NAU-SAWC after amalgamating with the United Shop Assis-tants Union.[26] From this time onward she subordinatedher life to her union work and to the wider cause of so-cialism. She had no vocation for wifehood or mother-hood, but an urge to serve the Union ... I had 'the dearlove of comrades ".[27][n 3] At the time the unions mem-

1.3 Womens Labour League 3

Cartoon showing Bondeld addressing a NAUSAWC recruitmentmeeting, July 1898

bership, at under 3,000, represented only a small fractionof shopworkers, and Bondeld gave priority to increasingthis proportion.[n 4] For months she travelled the coun-try, distributing literature and arranging meetings whenshe could, with mixed outcomes in the face of apathyfrom shop sta, and outright opposition from shopown-ers. In Reading and Bristol she reported no success, al-though in Gloucester, she thought, it should not be di-cult to organise every shop worker.[30] In 1899 Bondeldwas the rst woman delegate to the Trades Union AnnualCongress, that year held in Plymouth,[31] where she par-ticipated in the vote that led to the formation in 1900 ofthe Labour Representation Committee (LRC), forerun-ner of the Labour Party.[32] NAUSAWC, its membershipby then around 7,000, was one of the rst unions to al-iate to the committee.[33]

In 1902 Bondeld met Mary Macarthur, some eightyears her junior, who chaired the Ayr branch of NAU-SAWC. Macarthur, the daughter of a wealthy Scottishdraper, had held staunchly Conservative views until aworks meeting in 1901 to discuss the formation of aNAUSAWC branch transformed her into an ardent tradesunionist.[34] In 1903 Macarthur moved to London where,with Bondelds recommendation, she became secretaryof the Womens Trade Union League.[35] The two becameclose comrades-in-arms during the next two decades, ina range of causes aecting women. The historian LiseSanders suggests that Bondelds more intimate friend-ships tended to be with women rather than men;[36]Bondelds biographer Mary Agnes Hamilton describedMacarthur as the romance of Bondelds life.[37]

The year 1904 saw the passage of the Shop Hours Act,which made some provision for limiting shop hours.[n 5]In 1907 the rst steps were taken to end the Victo-rian living-in practice, which at the time still aectedtwo-thirds of Britains 750,000 shopworkers.[39] Initially,living-out privileges were only given to male employees;Bondeld campaigned for equivalent rights for womenshop workers, arguing that if they were to become use-ful, healthy ... wives and mothers, they needed to

live rational lives.[40] As part of her campaign, Bond-eld advised the playwright Cicely Hamilton, whoseshop-based drama Diana of Dobsons appeared that year.Bondeld described the opening scene, set in a dreary,comfortless womens dormitory over a shop, as very likethe real thing.[41]

From 1904 onwards, Bondeld was increasingly occupiedwith the issue of womens surage. In that year she trav-elled with Dora Monteore of the Womens Social andPolitical Union (WSPU) to the International Congress ofWomen in Berlin, but she was not in sympathy with themain WSPU policy, which was to secure the vote forwomen on the same highly restricted basis that it wasthen given to men. This involved a property qualica-tion, and thus largely excluded the working class. Bond-eld saw no benet in this policy to the women that sherepresented, and aligned herself with the Adult SurageSociety (ASS), which campaigned for universal adult suf-frage, men and women alike, regardless of property.[35] In1906 she became chairman of the society and supportedthe Franchise and Removal of Womens Disabilities bill,introduced to parliament by Sir Charles Dilke.[42] Thisproposed full adult surage, and the right of women tobecome MPs. The bill was "talked out" in the House ofCommons,[43] but Bondelds support antagonised manymilitants in the WSPU, who considered the bill a dis-traction from their more limited aims. In 1907, in thecourse of a public debate with Teresa Billington-Greig ofthe Womens Freedom League (a breakaway group fromthe WSPU), Bondeld argued that the only way forwardwas a bill that enfranchised all men and all women, with-out qualication.[44] She wished good luck to those ght-ing for a same terms as men surage bill, but don'tlet them come and tell me that they are working for myclass.[45][n 6] The strains of her duties and constant cam-paigning began to undermine her health, and in 1908she resigned her union post after ten years service, dur-ing which NAUSAWC membership had risen to over20,000.[47] Her departure, she said, was alike a grief anda deliverance.[48]

1.3 Womens Labour League

In view of the Reform Bill promised by the Government,this Conference demands that the inclusion of women [inthe extended surage] shall ... become a vital part ofthe Government measure, and further declares that anyattempt to exclude women will be met by the uncompro-mising opposition of organized Labour to the whole Bill.(WLL resolution to the Labour Party Conference, 1909.At the conference, Bondeld agreed to the deletion ofthe last four words.)[49]

After leaving NAUSAWC, Bondeld transferred themain focus of her energies to the Womens LabourLeague (WLL), which she had helped to found in

4 1 LIFE

1906.[25] The Leagues principal aims were to work forindependent labour representation in connection with theLabour Party, and to obtain direct labour representationof women in Parliament and on all local bodies.[50] Thepresident of the League was Margaret MacDonald, wifeof the future Labour Party leader Ramsay MacDonald;[51]Bondeld had known the MacDonalds since the 1890s,through their joint work for the WIC.[2]

With a government surage reform bill pending in parlia-ment, the WLL introduced a motion to the 1909 LabourParty conference committing the party to oppose anysurage extension bill that did not specically includewomen. However, while the party was largely sympa-thetic to the principle of womens surage, it was un-willing to risk losing the limited reforms to male suf-frage promised by the governments bill. When Bondeldtabled the WLL motion at the Labour conference, shewas persuaded by Arthur Henderson to water it down.[49]Many suragists reacted angrily; the WSPU accused theWLL, and Bondeld in particular, of treachery. FranAbrams, in a biographical essay, writes that althoughBondeld was prepared to argue loud and long for adultsurage, ... she was not prepared to damage her relation-ship with the Labour Party for it.[42]

Since the passing of the Qualication of Women Actin 1907, women had been eligible to vote in and standas candidates in municipal elections.[52] Several WLLmembers contested the London County Council elec-tions in 1910; Bondeld stood in Woolwich, unsuccess-fully (she contested the same seat in 1913, with a similarresult).[18][53] The League was active in all types of elec-tions, supporting and canvassing for candidates of eithersex who spoke out for womens rights. Through these ac-tivities Bondeld experienced the lives of the poorest offamilies, writing: Oh! the lonely lives of these women,hidden away at the back of a network of small, meanstreets!"[54]

Alongside her WLL duties, Bondeld maintained a rangeof other involvements. She spent part of 1910 in theUnited States, lecturing on surage issues with MaudWard of the Peoples Surage Federation (PSF), andstudying labour problems.[42][55] At home, she workedwith the Womens Co-operative Guild (WCG) on ma-ternity and child welfare, and was co-opted to the Par-liamentary Standing Committee that piloted the intro-duction of state maternity benets and other assistanceto mothers.[18][56] Her investigation on behalf of theWIC into the working conditions in the textile indus-tries led her to join most of the Labour leadership in aWar against Poverty campaign.[53] In 1910 Bondeldaccepted the chairmanship of the British section of theWomens International Council of Socialist and LabourOrganisations.[57]

Between 1908 and 1910 the WLL and the WICco-operated in a nationwide investigation of marriedwomens working conditions. Bondeld carried out the

eldwork in Yorkshire. The relationship between the twobodies was sometimes fractious, and when the report wasdue to be published, there were disagreements over how itshould be handled. As a result of these and other clashes,Bondeld, MacDonald and the other League women re-signed from the Council.[58] In 1911 Bondeld assumedthe role of the WLLs Organising Secretary,[59] and spentmuch of the year travelling: she formed a WLL branch inOgmore Vale, Glamorgan,[60] reformed the Manchesterbranch,[61] and found time to advise laundrywomen en-gaged in a dispute in South Wales.[62] The sudden death ofMary MacDonald in September 1911 added considerablyto Bondelds workload; the strain, together with internalanimosities within the WLL, led her to resign her posi-tion in January 1912. The League made strenuous eortsto retain her, and only in September did its committee re-luctantly accept her departure. An attempt to re-engageher in 1913 was unsuccessful, and Marion Phillips wasappointed to succeed her.[63][n 7]

1.4 Campaigns and war

From 1912 Bondeld was a member of the WCGsCitizenship Subcommittee,[65] where she worked withMargaret Llewelyn Davies investigating minimumwage rates, infant mortality and child welfare.[18] Shealso assisted the Guilds education and training pro-gramme, lecturing on Local Government in Relation toMaternity.[66] Freedom from her WLL responsibilitiesgave her more time for political work, and in 1913 shejoined the ILPs National Administration Council.[25]Bondeld spoke at the ILPs mass anti-war rally inTrafalgar Square rally on 2 August 1914, organised byGeorge Lansbury; other speakers included Keir Hardie,Henderson, and the dockers leader Ben Tillett.[67] Onthe outbreak of war a few days later, Bondeld joinedthe Union of Democratic Control that, while not pacist,opposed the use of war as an instrument of nationalpolicy.[68] She was also a member of the Womens PeaceCouncil. In March 1915 she attended a conferencein Berne, Switzerland, organised by the WomensInternational of Socialist and Labour Organizations,which called for a negotiated peace. Later in the war thegovernment, concerned by Bondelds association withpeace organisations, prevented her from travelling tosimilar gatherings in Sweden and the United States.[55]

Bondeld had helped Mary Macarthur to found theNational Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) in1906. This organisation was dedicated to the unioni-sation of women, and by 1914 had more than 20,000members.[69] In 1915 Bondeld became NFWWs organ-ising secretary.[70] Together with Macarthur, Phillips andSusan Lawrence, she established the Central Committeefor Womens Employment, which organised relief workfor the female unemployed.[71] Bondelds investigationsinto workers pay revealed considerable dierences be-tween the rates paid to men and to women, even for iden-

1.5 National prominence 5

tical work.[72][n 8] Through the NFWW she campaignedfor a 1 a week starting minimum wage for women, what-ever the nature of the work, and for equal pay with menfor equal work.[73]

Suragist militancy having largely lapsed after the out-break of war, in October 1916 a Speakers Conference[n 9]was convened to consider the issue of womens franchiseand make proposals for postwar legislation. While Bond-eld, Lansbury and other prewar campaigners pressedfor universal adult surage,[75][76] the conference recom-mended only a limited extension of the franchise. Thesubsequent Representation of the People Act, 1918, gavethe vote to women over 30 who were property own-ers or the wives of property owners, or were univer-sity graduates.[77] Bondeld described the Act, which ex-cluded almost all working-class women, as mean and in-adequate ... creating fresh anomalies.[78]

1.5 National prominence

Lansbury, mocked in the press for his pro-Soviet stance; the cock-erel is the symbol of betrayal

The end of the war in November 1918 saw Bondeldselection to the General Council of the TUC, the rstwoman to be thus elevated.[25] In the following monthsshe travelled as a TUC delegate to international con-ferences, in Berne and later in Washington DC, whereshe expressed the view that the peace terms being im-posed on Germany were unjust.[76] In April 1920 shewas a member of a joint TUC-Labour Party mission tothe Soviet Union.[79][n 10] A few months earlier, Lans-bury had visited the incipient Soviet state and had beenmost impressed after meeting Lenin, whom he judged

to be symbolic of a new spirit, the father of his peo-ple and their champion in the cause of social and eco-nomic freedom.[81] Bondeld, who also met Lenin,[82]was more cautious. She told an NFWW conference onher return that if she were a Russian citizen she wouldsupport the Bolshevist government as currently the onlypossible form of administration.[83] Later, she came tosee communism as anti-democratic and dictatorial, andvoted against the application of the British CommunistParty for aliation to the Labour Party.[55]

Among various public activities, Bondeld joined thegoverning body of Ruskin College, the Oxford-based in-stitution founded in 1899 to provide higher education op-portunities to working-class men.[18][84] She also becamea Justice of the Peace.[25] She rst sought election to par-liament in 1920, as the Labour candidate in a by-electionin Northampton. She increased the Labour vote signif-icantly, but lost by 3,371 votes, to the Coalition Lib-eral candidate.[85] At the general election of 1922 shewas again adopted by Labour at Northampton, and asin 1913, turned to Shaw for help in the campaign. Hewas contemptuous of the Labour leadership for not ar-ranging a more promising seat;[86] nevertheless, he cameand spoke for her, but her margin of defeat widened to5,476.[87][88][n 11]

Following two years of negotiation, in 1920 the NFWWvoted to merge with the National Union of General Work-ers and become that unions Womens Section. Bond-eld, who supported the merger, believed that as long aswomen could maintain their separate identity, it was bet-ter for men and women to work together. The secretaryof the new section was to have been Mary Macarthur,but she died of cancer on 1 January 1921, the date thatthe merger came into eect.[90] Bondeld was appointedin her place, and remained in the post (with leave of ab-sence while holding ministerial oce) until 1938.[76] Tohonour her friend, Bondeld helped to organise the MaryMacarthur Memorial Fund.[91] She added other responsi-bilities to her heavy schedule: chairing the Standing JointCommittee of Industrial Womens Organisations (SJ-CIWO), membership of the Labour Partys EmergencyCommittee on Unemployment, and chairman of the 1922Conference of Unemployed Women.[18] In September1923 she became the rst women to assume the chair ofthe TUCs General Council.[25][92]

In November 1923 Stanley Baldwin's Conservative Gov-ernment fell. In the following months general electionBondeld was elected in Northampton with a majority of4,306 over her Conservative opponent.[93] She was oneof the rst three womenSusan Lawrence and DorothyJewson were the othersto be elected as Labour MPs.[76]In an outburst of local celebration her supporters, whomshe described as nearly crazy with joy, paraded heraround the town in a charabanc.[94] The Labour Party hadwon 191 seats to the Conservatives 258 and the Liberals158; with no party in possession of a parliamentary ma-jority, the make-up of the next government was in doubt

6 1 LIFE

for several weeks.[76]

1.6 Parliament and oce1.6.1 First Labour Government

The Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, depicted in a hostilePunch cartoon. The luggage label, marked Petrograd, linkshim to Russia and communism.

The Liberal Partys decision not to enter a coalition withthe Conservatives, and Baldwins unwillingness to gov-ern without a majority, led to Ramsay MacDonaldsrst minority Labour government, which took oce inJanuary 1924.[95] According to Lansburys biographer,Bondeld turned down the oer of a cabinet post;[96] in-stead, she became parliamentary secretary to the Ministerof Labour, Tom Shaw. This appointment meant that shehad to give up the TUC Council chair; her decision todo so, immediately after becoming the rst woman toachieve this honour, generated some criticism from othertrade unionists.[97]

Bondeld later described her rst months in governmentas a strange adventure.[98] The diculties of the eco-nomic situation would have created problems for the mostexperienced of governments, and the edgling Labouradministration was quickly in diculties.[76] Bondeldspent much of her time abroad; in the autumn she trav-elled to Canada as the head of a delegation examin-ing the problems of British immigrants, especially as re-lated to the welfare of young children.[99] When she re-turned to Britain in early October she found the gov-ernment in its nal throes. On 8 October MacDonaldresigned after losing a condence vote in the House of

Commons.[100] Labours chances of victory in the ensu-ing general election were fatally compromised by the con-troversy surrounding the so-called Zinoviev letter, a mis-sive purportedly sent by Grigory Zinoviev, president ofthe Communist International, which called on Britainssocialists to prepare for violent revolution. The letter,published four days before polling day, generated a RedScare that led to a signicant swing of voters to the right,and ensured a massive Conservative victory.[101][102][n 12]Bondeld lost her seat in Northampton by 971 votes.[103]

1.6.2 Opposition

After her defeat, Bondeld resumed her work forNUGMW and was re-elected to the TUC Council.[104] In1926 she supported the TUCs decision to hold a GeneralStrike, and also the decision to call it o after ninedays.[105] Following the resignation of Sir Patrick Hast-ings in June 1926, Bondeld was adopted as the Labourcandidate at Wallsend,[106] and won the subsequent by-election with a majority of over 9,000.[107] Meanwhileshe had accepted appointment to the Blanesburgh Com-mittee, which the Conservative government had set upto consider reforms to the system of unemploymentbenet.[104] Her private view, that entitlement to benetsshould be related to contributions, was not widely sharedin the Labour Party or the TUC.[25] When the commit-tee made recommendations along these lines she signedthe report, which became the basis of the UnemploymentInsurance Act 1927. Bondelds association with this leg-islation permanently shadowed her relationship with theLabour movement.[104]

On 29 March 1928, when a bill providing for full adultsurage came before parliament, she termed it a tremen-dous social advance, and added: At last [women] areestablished on that equitable footing because we are hu-man beings and part of society as a whole ... once andfor all, we shall destroy the articial barrier in the wayof any women who want to get education in politics andwho want to come forward and take their full share inthe political life of their day.[108] When the bill becamelaw, 4 million voters, most of them women, were addedto the register. In the 1929 general election, held on30 May, Bondeld easily held her Wallsend seat despitethe intervention of a candidate representing unemployedworkers.[104][107] The overall election result left Labouras the largest party with 287 seats, but without an over-all majority, and MacDonald formed his second minorityadministration.[109]

1.6.3 Minister of Labour

When Bondeld accepted the post of Minister of Labourin the new government, she became Britains rst womancabinet minister, and Britains rst woman privy counsel-lor.[25][110] She considered the appointment part of the

1.7 Late career 7

Of the 192931 Labour cabinet ministers who opposed the for-mation of a National Government in August 1931, only GeorgeLansbury retained his seat in the ensuing general election.

great revolution in the position of women.[111] Her pe-riod in oce was dominated by the issue of rising unem-ployment and the consequent increasing costs of benet,which created a division between the government, anx-ious to demonstrate its nancial responsibility, and thewider Labour movement whose priority was to protect theunemployed. According to the historian Robert Skidel-sky: Ministers worried about the nances of the [unem-ployment] fund; backbenchers worried about the nancesof the unemployed.[112] Under increasing pressure fromthe TUC, Bondeld introduced a bill that reversed theBlanesburgh restrictions on unemployment benet in-troduced by the previous government, but with visible re-luctance. Her handling of this issue is described by Mar-quand as maladroit,[113] and by Skidelsky as showingmonumental tactlessness.[114]

As the cost of unemployment benets mounted, Bond-elds attempts to control the funds decit provoked fur-ther hostility from the TUC and political attacks from theopposition parties.[25] In February 1931 she proposed ascheme to cut benet and restrict entitlement, but this wasrejected by the cabinet as too harsh. Instead, seeking across-party solution, the government accepted a Liberalproposal for an independent committee, eventually set upunder Sir George May, to report on how public expendi-ture might be reduced.[115] With the collapse in May 1931of Austrias leading private bank, Kreditanstalt, and thesubsequent failure of several other European banks, thesense of crisis deepened.[116] On 30 July the May com-mittee recommended cuts in expenditure of 97 million,the majority (67 million) to be found from reductions inunemployment costs.[117] In the ensuing weeks, ministersstruggled vainly to meet these demands. Bondeld wasprepared to cut general unemployment benet, providedthe most needy recipientsthose on so-called transi-

tional benetwere protected.[118] No formula could befound; by 23 August the cabinet was hopelessly split, andresigned the next day. To the outrage of the TUC andmost of the Labour Party, MacDonald formed an emer-gency National Government with the Conservative andLiberal parties, while the bulk of the Labour Party wentinto opposition.[119]

Bondeld did not join the small number of LabourMPs who chose to follow MacDonald, although she ex-pressed her deep sympathy and admiration for hisactions.[25][120] In the general election that followed on27 October 1931, the Labour Party lost more than three-quarters of its Commons seats and was reduced to 52members. Bondeld was defeated in Wallsend by 7,606votes; Abrams observes that given the attacks on her fromboth right and left, it would have been a miracle had shebeen re-elected.[121] Of the former Labour cabinet mem-bers who opposed the National Government, only Lans-bury kept his seat.[107][122]

1.7 Late career

After her defeat, Bondeld returned to her NUGMWpost. The TUC, suspicious of her perceived closenessto MacDonald, was cool towards her and she was not re-elected to the General Council.[25] She remained Labourscandidate at Wallsend; in the general election of 1935 shewas again defeated.[107] She never returned to parliament;she was adopted as the prospective Labour candidate forReading, but when it became obvious that the electiondue for 1940 would be delayed indenitely by war, sheresigned her candidacy.[121]

In 1938, after retiring from her NUGMW post,[25] Bond-eld founded the Womens Group on Public Welfare. Shestudied labour conditions in the United States and Mex-ico during 1938, and toured the US and Canada after theoutbreak of war in 1939, as a lecturer for the British Infor-mation Services.[18][105] Her attitude towards the war wasdierent from her semi-pacist stance of 1914; she ac-tively supported the government and, in 1941, publisheda booklet, Why Labour Fights.[121][123] Her main wartimeactivity was leading an investigation by the Hygiene Com-mittee of the Womens Group on Public Welfare, intothe problems that arose from the large-scale evacuationinto the countryside of city children. The groups nd-ings were published in 1943, as Our Towns: a Close-up;the report gave many people their rst understanding ofthe extent of inner-city poverty.[121] Suggested solutionsincluded nursery education, a minimum wage, child al-lowances and a national health service. The report wasreprinted several times, and was instrumental in devel-oping support for the social reforms introduced by theLabour government that took oce in 1945.[124] AmongBondelds other wartime activities, in 1944 she helpedto launch a national drive for the appointment of morewomen police ocers.[125]

8 2 APPRAISAL AND LEGACY

1.8 Last years, retirement and death

Although not a candidate herself, Bondeld campaignedfor Labour in the general election of July 1945a re-porter found her instructing a meeting in Bury St Ed-munds on the benets of nationalisation.[126] She was ac-tive in her local Labour Party, and continued to chair theWomens Group of Public Welfare until 1948.[127][n 13]Her main task in these years was her autobiography, pub-lished in 1948 under the title A Lifes Work. The pur-pose of the book, she wrote, was not to celebrate herown achievements but in the hope that her experiencesmay be of some service to the younger generation.[129]The book had an indierent reception; in The Observer,Harold Nicolson described it as ill composed and badlyproportioned, with too much space devoted to inconse-quential meetings while truly important events were hur-ried over. Nevertheless he thought the book provideda ne example of resolute and in the end triumphantenergy.[130] The Manchester Guardian ' s reviewer alsocriticised the works confused structure and unselectivedetail, but found it a useful, direct and honest accountof Labours early years.[131]

Golders Green Crematorium

Apart from her autobiography, Bondeld contributed toa collection of essays entitled What Life Has Taught Me,in which 25 public gures pondered on the lessons oflife. Bondeld wrote that her religious convictions gaveher strength to meet defeat with a smile, to face suc-cess with a sense of responsibility; to be willing to doones best without hope of reward [and] to bear misrep-resentation without giving way to futile bitterness.[132]In March 1948 Bondeld opened the Mary MacarthurHome at Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool in Lancashire,which provided subsidised holidays for low-paid womenworkers.[133] In 1949 she made a six-month speaking tourof the United States, her nal visit to the country; sheleft convinced that America would soon adopt a nationalhealth service.[127]

Bondeld, who never married, maintained her goodhealth and interest in life until her nal illness in 1953.She moved to a nursing home in Sanderstead, Surrey,

where she died aged 80 on 16 June 1953.[25] At hercremation in Golders Green Crematorium the congre-gation sang the popular hymn "To Be a Pilgrim". TheLabour Party was fully represented; Clement Attlee, theleader of the party and former prime minister, gave theaddress.[134]

2 Appraisal and legacyIn his biographical sketch for the Oxford Dictionary ofNational Biography, Philip Williamson depicts Bond-eld as physically short and stout ... with sparklingeyes, a rm, brisk manner, and eective, sometimes in-spired, public speaking.[25] She had the self-condenceto exist and thrive in a male-dominated world,[86] de-riving inspiration from a childhood that, though mate-rially impoverished, her obituarist has described as ofgreat spiritual and mental wealth.[135] She inherited astrong nonconformist faith, which became a key elementthroughout her later career,[136] and retained her linkswith the Congregational Church throughout her life.[137]After her death The Times praised her unusually widehuman sympathies ... her generous nature and real senseof humour.[138] Skidelsky, however, describes her un-sympathetically as a humourless and somewhat priggishperson, with long black skirts and a voice that emitted aharsh cascade of sound.[139]

Bondelds career was punctuated by rsts, in union,parliament and government spheres.[140][141] Her ownview of these achievements was modest: Some womanwas bound to be rst. That I should be was the accidentof dates and events.[86] Her appointment as Minister ofLabour propelled her into what was, in 1929, the hardestjob in the cabinet,[135] and in common with other minis-ters, her lack of experience in government left her heavilydependent on her ocial advisers.[142] By temperament arealist, she based her actions in government on economicfacts rather on party or sectional interests;[105] thus shebecame caught between the opposition claims that shewas soft on the unemployed, and her own backbenchersjibe that she had abandoned the workers.[86] Her stance,and her seemingly equivocal attitude towards MacDon-alds apostasy, reduced her standing in her own party fordecades, so that when Barbara Castle was appointed asMinister of Labour by Harold Wilson in 1968, she in-sisted that the ministrys name be changed to Depart-ment of Employment, for fear of association with Bond-elds term in oce.[143] Castle refused to contribute apreface to Fabian Society booklet celebrating Bondeldslife, because she considered her predecessors actionsclose to political betrayal.[144] In 2001, a speech by TonyBlair celebrating the Labour Partys 100 years in par-liament paid tributes to many heroes of the movementsearly years; Bondelds name was not mentioned.[145]

Bondeld was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws de-gree by the University of Bristol, and in 1930 received

9the freedom of the borough from her home town ofChard,[2] where in 2011 a plaque in her honour was xedto the Guildhall wall.[141] In 1948 she was appointed aCompanion of Honour (CH).[146] Many years after herdeath, streets and apartment buildings were named af-ter her in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets andBarking;[147][148] she was further commemorated in herold constituency of Northampton when a hall of residencein the University of Northampton was named the Mar-garet Bondeld Hall.[149] In 2014 a campaign began fora plaque on the shop in Church Street, Hove, where in188667 Bondeld had served her apprenticeship.[10]

To mark Bondelds centenary in 1973, Linda Christ-mas in The Guardian reviewed the progress of womenin parliament since the 1930s. To that point, Christ-mas reported, only 93 women had sat in parliament; theircontributions had overall not been stunning.[140] Theirbest numerical showing had been in the 1966 generalelection, when 29 women (out of 630 MPs) had beenelected. The 1979 election saw this number fall to 19, butalso saw Margaret Thatcher become Britains rst womanprime minister.[150][n 14] Cox and Hobley draw attentionto Thatchers early life as a shopkeepers daughter, andcontrast her account of those days with Bondelds expe-riences half a century earlier. Thatcher believed that theconcept of service to the customer was absolute; thus,Cox and Hobley assert, she would have had little sym-pathy for Bondelds campaigns to better shopworkersconditions.[151] Despite the changes that have taken placein the retail industry since Bondelds day, Cox and Hob-ley believe that, were she alive, she'd still be champingat the bit, trying to coax shop assistants to join a union,and ercely championing shopworkers rights to betterpay and conditions.[152]

3 WritingsBondeld was a prolic writer of magazine and newspa-per articles. Her main publications are listed below:

3.1 Books

A Lifes Work (autobiography): London, Hutchin-sons 1948. OCLC 577150779

What Life Has Taught Me (contributor with 27others): London, Odhams Press 1948. OCLC222888739

3.2 Booklets and pamphlets

Socialism for Shop Assistants (in Pass On Pam-phlets series). London, Clarion Press, 1909.OCLC 40624464[153]

Shop Workers and the Vote (co-author with KathrynOliver). London, Peoples Surage Federation,1911. OCLC 26958055[154]

The National Care of Maternity. London, WomensCo-operative Guild, 1914. OCLC 81111433[155]

Labour and the League of Nations. (co-author withJ. Ramsay MacDonald and Arthur Pugh). Bond-elds chapter: Great Britains Responsibility.London, League of Nations Union, 1926. OCLC561089187[156]

The Meaning of Trade. London, E. Benn Ltd, 1928.OCLC 56418171[157]

Why Labour Fights. London, 1941. OCLC44515437[158]

Our Towns: A Close-up (with the Hygiene Com-mittee of the Womens Group on Public Welfare).London, Oxford University Press, 1943. OCLC750462348[159]

4 Notes and referencesNotes

[1] A Chard Political Union tract, Results of the FundingSystem, was published in the Chartist Circular of 23November 1839. It attacked the mismanagement andcorruption of government that had swelled the NationalDebt to 850 million that, if measured in gold sovereigns,would load as many waggons as would extend for eightymiles.[4]

[2] In 1873 the Liberal MP Sir John Lubbock had introduceda parliamentary bill to limit shopworkers hours to tenand a half per day. The House of Commons rejectedthe bill, on the grounds that unlike factory work, shop-work could hardly be considered fatiguing, much lessunwholesome.[21]

[3] The quotation is from No. 24 of the Calamus poems,which form part of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.[28]

[4] Cox and Hobley, in their history of life behind thecounter, give the unions membership at the time as2,000;[29] Frank Magill, in his Dictionary of World Biog-raphy, states a gure of 2,897.[2]

[5] The Act gave local councils the power to x trading hours,provided they could get the agreement of at least two-thirds of shopowners. Not until the Shops Act of 1911did it become a statutory requirement that shopworkershad a half-days holiday each week.[38]

[6] The Adult Surage Society was relaunched in 1909 as thePeoples Surage Federation (PSF), under the leadershipof Margaret Llewellyn Davies.[46]

[7] The WLL continued until 1918, when it evolved into theWomens Section of the Labour Party.[64]

10 4 NOTES AND REFERENCES

[8] In 1916 women in government oces were paid between18 and 21 shillings a week as against their male counter-parts 35 shillings; women post oce workers received25s, men 35s for the same work; women in factoriesworked alongside men and received less than half the malehourly rate.[72]

[9] The Speakers Conference is an inter-party parliamen-tary mechanism that deals with electoral law and elec-toral reform. The 1916 conference was the rst use ofthe mechanism.[74]

[10] The members of the mission were: from the LabourParty, Ben Turner, Ethel Snowden, Tom Shaw and RobertWilliams; from the TUC, Margaret Bondeld, A. A. Pur-cell and H Skinner; from the ILP Cliord Allen and R. C.Wallhead. The joint secretaries to the mission were LeslieHaden-Guest and Charles Roden Buxton. Bertrand Rus-sell accompanied the party in a private capacity.[79][80]

[11] After Bondelds death in 1953, an anonymous Manch-ester Guardian correspondent conjectured that she was theinspiration behind Shaws portrayal of the PowermistressGeneral in his play The Apple Cart.[89]

[12] The Conservative victory resulted from the collapse of theLiberal vote; Labour obtained a million more votes thanin 1923, and its share of the poll likewise increased.[102]

[13] After the war the Group changed its name to WomensForum, and continued until 1980 when it closed throughlack of funding.[128]

[14] After 1979 the numbers of elected women rose at succes-sive general elections, reaching 120 in 1997 and 143 in2010.[150]

References

[1] Hamilton, pp. 3031

[2] Magill, p. 353

[3] Hamilton, p. 29

[4] Results of the Funding System. Chartist Circular. 23November 1839.

[5] Abrams, pp. 21819

[6] Hamilton, p. 37

[7] Hamilton, p. 38

[8] Margaret Bondeld, The Times Great Womens Lives:A Celebration in Obituaries, The History Press, 18 June1953, p. 183, the diminutive clung to her all through hercareer

[9] Hamilton 1924, p. 38.

[10] Hove blue plaque call for 1920s MP Margaret Bond-eld. BBC News Sussex. 1 June 2014. Retrieved 5September 2014.

[11] Bondeld, p. 24

[12] Hamilton, pp. 434

[13] Quoted in Sanders, pp. 4546, from The Meaning ofTrade (1928). London, E.G Benn. OCLC 56418171

[14] Martindale, pp. 3435, quoting Bondeld

[15] Sanders, p. 217

[16] Abrams, p. 220

[17] Cox and Hobley, p. 93

[18] Law, pp. 2830


[20] Bondeld, p. 62

[21] Cox and Hornby, pp. 4344

[22] Sanders, pp. 46 and 4853

[23] Bondeld, p. 28

[24] Cox and Hobley, pp. 9597

[25] Williamson, Philip. Bondeld, Margaret Grace. Ox-ford Dictionary of National Biography online edition. Re-trieved 21 August 2014. (subscription or UK public li-brary membership required)

[26] National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Ware-housemen and Clerks. Archivehub. Retrieved 7 March2015.

[27] Bondeld, p. 36.

[28] Books by Whitman: Leaves of Grass (1860)". The WaltWhitman Archive. Retrieved 20 September 2014.


[30] Bondeld, Miss Bondeld on Tour, The Shop Assistant,July 1898, quoted in Cox and Hobley, pp. 10001


[32] Pelling, pp. 20406

[33] Collette, p. 28

[34] John, Angela. Macarthur [married name Anderson],Mary Reid. Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyonline edition. Retrieved 21 August 2014. (subscriptionor UK public library membership required)

[35] Abrams, pp. 22324

[36] Sanders, p. 48

[37] Hamilton, p. 96

[38] Kay, J.A. et al. (1984). The Regulation of Retail TradingHours. The Institute of Fiscal Studies.



[41] Bondeld, p. 72

[42] Abrams, pp. 22526

11

[43] Franchise and Removal of Womens Disabilities Bill152. Hansard. 2 March 1906. pp. col. 144853.

[44] Holton, pp. 5758

[45] Bondeld, p. 83

[46] The Peoples Surage Federation. The Common Cause:p. 8. 21 October 1909.


[48] Bondeld, p. 60

[49] Electoral Reform and Womens Surage. The CommonCause: p. 6. 17 February 1910.

[50] Women, the Vote and Labour 19061918. National Co-operative Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2014.

[51] June, Hannam. MacDonald, Margaret Ethel Gladstone.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edition.Retrieved 23 August 2014. (subscription or UK publiclibrary membership required)

[52] Wilson, p. 48

[53] Abrams, p. 227

[54] Collette, pp. 99102

[55] Magill, p. 354

[56] Scott, pp. 8889



[59] Abrams, p. 228



[62] Collete, p. 66

[63] Collette, pp. 13234

[64] Labour History Archive and Study Centre. Archiveshub. Retrieved 7 September 2014.

[65] Scott, pp. 84 and 96

[66] Scott, p. 43

[67] Shepherd, p. 160

[68] Records of the Union of Democratic Control 191418.Hull University archives. Retrieved 25 August 2014.

[69] Davis, Mary. The National Federation of Women Work-ers. TUC History online. Retrieved 25 August 2014.

[70] Hunt, p. 84

[71] Braybon, p. 44

[72] Braybon, p. 94

[73] Braybon, p. 101

[74] Speakers conference. BBC News. Retrieved 6 Septem-ber 2014.


[76] Abrams, pp. 22930

[77] Representation of the People Bill: Clause 4, Franchises(Women)". Hansard 94: col. 1633. 19 June 1917.

[78] Bondeld, p. 126

[79] British Labour delegation to Russia, 1920. TUC HistoryOnline. Retrieved 26 August 2014.

[80] Wright, Patrick (2007). 8. First Delegation. Iron Cur-tain: From Stage to Cold War. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress. ISBN 978-0-19-923150-8.



[83] Miss Bondeld on Russia. The Observer. 25 July 1920.p. 10. (subscription required)

[84] Ruskin College, Oxford. The Independent. 6 August2013.

[85] Mr McCurdys Majority at Northampton: A 4000 Re-duction. The Manchester Guardian. 16 April 1920. p.10. (subscription required)

[86] Vallance, Elizabeth (25 November 1983). First of thefew. The Guardian. p. 12. (subscription required)


[88] Complete Results of the General Election. The Manch-ester Guardian. 17 November 1922. p. 10. (subscriptionrequired)

[89] Our London Correspondence. The ManchesterGuardian. 18 June 1953. p. 6. (subscription required)

[90] Hunt, pp. 10607

[91] Hunt, p. 120

[92] Hunt, p. 114

[93] Complete Results of the General Election. The Manch-ester Guardian. 8 December 1923. p. 1. (subscriptionrequired)


[95] Blythe, p. 278


[97] Hunt, pp. 11415


[99] Boucher, pp. 8587

[100] Marquand, p. 377

12 4 NOTES AND REFERENCES

[101] Andrew, Christopher (September 1977). The BritishSecret Service and Anglo-Soviet Relations in the 1920sPart I: From the Trade Negotiations to the ZinovievLetter. The Historical Journal 20 (3): 673706.doi:10.1017/s0018246x00011298. (subscription re-quired)

[102] Marquand, pp. 38186

[103] Death of Sir A. Holland: Remarkable Victory of 1924.The Manchester Guardian. 8 December 1927. p. 11.(subscription required)

[104] Abrams, pp. 23132

[105] Magill, p. 356

[106] Sir Patrick Hastingss Seat: Miss Bondeld Invited. TheManchester Guardian. 28 June 1926. p. 10. (subscriptionrequired)

[107] Craig, p. 263

[108] Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Bill.Hansard 215: col.1415. 29 March 1928.



[111] Bondeld, p. 276

[112] Skidelsky, pp. 10001


[114] Skidelsky, p. 160

[115] Marquand, pp. 58890

[116] Heerman, p. 360



[119] Blythe, pp. 28283


[121] Abrams, p. 234


[123] Why Labour Fights. WorldCat. 1941. Retrieved 1September 2014.

[124] Holman, Bob (22 December 2013). Social deprivation?Its not parents, its poverty. The Guardian Online. Re-trieved 1 September 2014.

[125] Drive for More Women Police. The Observer. 20February 1944. p. 7. (subscription required)

[126] ""Stunt With No Real Basis Mr Morrison on Tory at-tempts to Distract the Public. The Manchester Guardian.4 July 1945. p. 8. (subscription required)

[127] Our London Correspondence: Margaret Bondeld. TheManchester Guardian. 8 December 1949. p. 4. (sub-scription required)

[128] Stott, Mary (27 August 1980). Closed Forum. TheGuardian. p. 9. (subscription required)


[130] Nicolson, Harold (25 December 1949). Labour Leader.The Observer. p. 7. (subscription required)

[131] Miss Bondeld. The Manchester Guardian. 24 Febru-ary 1948. p. 5. (subscription required)

[132] Quoted from What Life Has Taught Me in Lynd, Robert(4 April 1948). Looking At Life. The ManchesterGuardian. p. 3. (subscription required)

[133] The Mary Macarthur Home. TheManchester Guardian.24 March 1948. p. 8. (subscription required)

[134] Abrams, p. 235

[135] Miss Margaret Bondeld. The Manchester Guardian.18 June 1953. p. 3. (subscription required)

[136] Worley, p. 180

[137] Biagini, p. 222

[138] Quoted in Abrams, p. 235


[140] Christmas, Linda (19 March 1973). Country Matters.The Guardian. p. 9. (subscription required)

[141] Chard blue plaque celebrates MP Margaret Bondeld.BBC Somerset. 6 January 2011. Retrieved 5 September2014.


[143] Colemen, Terry (5 June 1993). The tigress still burnsbright. The Guardian. p. 29. (subscription required)

[144] Abrams, p. 217

[145] Abrams, p. 218

[146] Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. TheLondon Gazette (Supplement): p. 31. 1 January 1948.

[147] Margaret Bondeld Avenue, Barking. Google Maps.Retrieved 5 September 2014.

[148] Margaret Bondeld House, Drield Road, Bow.Google Maps. Retrieved 5 September 2014.

[149] New Margaret Bondeld Halls, Park Campus Northamp-ton. University of Northampton. May 1992. Retrieved5 September 2014.

[150] Women in Parliament and Government. House of Com-mons Library. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 5 September2014.

[151] Cox and Hobley, pp. 23032


[153] Socialism for Shop Assistants. WorldCat. Retrieved 10September 2014.

13

[154] Shop Workers and the Vote. WorldCat. Retrieved 10September 2014.

[155] The National Care of Maternity. WorldCat. Retrieved10 September 2014.

[156] Labour and the League of Nations. WorldCat. Re-trieved 10 September 2014.

[157] The Meaning of Trade. WorldCat. Retrieved 10September 2014.

[158] Why Labour Fights. WorldCat. Retrieved 10 Septem-ber 2014.

[159] Our Towns: a Close-up. WorldCat. Retrieved 10September 2014.

Sources

Abrams, Fran (2003). Freedoms Cause: Lives ofthe Suragettes. London: Prole Books. ISBN 1-86197-425-6.

Biagini, Eugenio F., Reid Alastair J. (eds) (1991).Currents of Radicalism: Popular Radicalism, Or-ganised Labour and Party. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. ISBN 0-521-39455-4.

Blythe, Ronald (1964). The Age of Illusion. Har-mondsworth: Penguin Books. OCLC 493484388.

Bondeld, Margaret (1948). A Lifes Work. Lon-don: Hutchinson. OCLC 5712024.

Boucher, Ellen (2014). Empires Children: ChildEmigration, Welfare, and the Decline of the BritishWorld, 18691967. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-versity Press. ISBN 978-1-107-04138-7.

Collette, Christine (1989). For Labour and forWomen: The Womens Labour League 190618.Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-2591-5.

Cox, Pamela; Hobley, Annabel (2014). Shopgirls:The True Story of Life Behind the Counter. London:Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-195446-8.

Hamilton, Mary Agnes (1924). Margaret Bondeld.London: L. Parsons. OCLC 300744813.

Holton, Sandra Stanley (1986). Feminism andDemocracy: Womens Surage and Reform Poli-tics in Britain, 19001918. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. ISBN 0-521-32855-1.

Law, Cheryl (2000). Women: A Modern PoliticalDictionary. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-502-X.

Magill, Frank N. (ed.) (1999). Dictionary ofWorld Biography, Vol. VII: The 20th Century (AG). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 0-89356-321-8.

Marquand, David (1977). Ramsay MacDonald.London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-01295-9.

Martindale, Hilda (1944). From One Generation toAnother, 18391944. London: George Allen & Un-win. OCLC 1296502.

Pelling, Henry (1966). Origins of the Labour Party.Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-881110-1.

Sanders, Lise (2006). Consuming Fantasies: La-bor, Leisure and the London Shopgirl. Columbus,Ohio: The Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0-8142-1017-1.

Scott, Gillian (1998). Feminism and the Politics ofWorking Women. London: UCL Press. ISBN 1-85728-798-3.

Skidelsky, Robert (1970). Politicians and theSlump: The Labour Government of 192931. Har-mondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-021172-6.

Wilson, A.N. (2006). After the Victorians. London:Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0-09-945187-7.

Worley, Matthew (ed.) (2009). The Foundations ofthe British Labour Party. Farnham, Surrey: AshgatePublishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-6731-5.

5 External links Hansard 18032005: contributions in Parliament by

Margaret Bondeld

Chard Museum Portraits of Margaret Bondeld at the National Por-

trait Gallery, London

14 6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses6.1 Text

Margaret Bondeld Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret%20Bondfield?oldid=651949229Contributors: John K, Warofdreams,Penfold, Dimadick, Timrollpickering, Wmahan, Mu, D6, Philip Cross, Craigy144, Rodw, Saga City, Mtiedemann, Rjwilmsi, Cambridge-BayWeather, [email protected], T. Anthony, SmackBot, Ian Rose, Chris the speller, Nakon, Tim riley, Ohconfucius, BrownHaired-Girl, Dwpaul, Mr Stephen, Midnightblueowl, Andrew Davidson, Joseph Solis in Australia, Vanished user sojweiorj34i4f, Neelix, Cydebot,Trident13, Biruitorul, The Obento Musubi, RobotG, Coolavokig, Bencherlite, Keith D, R'n'B, Dudley Miles, Arizonasqueeze, Histmag,Sam Blacketer, Chienlit, Nicklse, Bearian, Truthanado, Cj1340, Graham Beards, Alexanderps, All Hallows Wraith, Gaia Octavia Agrippa,Drmies, Niceguyedc, Arjayay, Brianboulton, Johnuniq, MystBot, Vifar55, Addbot, Lightbot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Materialscientist, Cita-tion bot, Tiller54, J04n, GrouchoBot, Sae1962, DrilBot, Jonesey95, Full-date unlinking bot, Cassianto, RjwilmsiBot, Faolin42, LenF54,ZroBot, ClueBot NG, SchroCat, BG19bot, Mogism, VIAFbot, ArmbrustBot, TFA Protector Bot, Huckleberry44, Michael W. Parker,FACBot, Enter Sandwich, Saddadf, The boss 987654231, Jack696969 and Anonymous: 17

6.2 Images File:Beatrice_&_Sidney_Webb,_c1895.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Beatrice_%26_Sidney_

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