page_title: Helena Gutteridge
section_title: Economic Security, Equal Pay and Union Movement
hierarchical_section_title: Helena Gutteridge / Career / Political Career / Economic Security, Equal Pay and Union Movement
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the west side of the 700 Block of Granville Street
context_page_description: Helena Gutteridge was a feminist, a suffragist, a trade unionist and the first female city councillor in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Helena was recognized for being a pioneer in pushing for women's rights in B.C. during a time when gender equality was not yet a prominent social movement and discourse.
  Born in Battersea, London in Victorian England, Helena was the second daughter of the Gutteridge family. At the age of 14, Helena was denied access to further education due to social class and gender discrimination. In order to continue pursuing an education, Helena left home in the same year and gradually lost touch with her family. From 1893 to 1911, while working as a tailor in London to support herself and to fund her education, Helena was also actively engaged with the female suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. She joined the Women's Social and Political Union, which provided her with ample political experiences and skills that laid the foundation of her political career.
  In September 1911, Helena set sail for the westernmost part of Canada.
context_section_description: Besides pursuing feminist goals, Helena also focused on union actions and equal pay for female workers. She saw female suffrage, unionism and economic independence as interconnected movements. Upon realizing the stark disparity between the wages of men and women across B.C. in 1912, Helena joined the local Tailors' Union and later became the first female member, then treasurer and secretary of the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council between 1913 to 1921. She aimed to represent women in a male-dominated milieu through trade unions and uniting feminist and labour organizations. Helena's arrival in Vancouver provided local female union movements with a timely leadership. She was involved in the formation of the Laundry Workers' Union and later the Vancouver Laundry Workers' Strike in 1918.  
  For Helena, establishing economic equality was an essential premise to achieve political equality and genuine gender parity. She remarked that "[t]he economic value of the ballot is one of the strongest arguments in favour of votes for women" and "[t]he political organization of women and the organization of women into trade unions, although two separate and independent movements, are nevertheless supplementary and necessary to each other, if the economic freedom of women is to be obtained." 
  Economic conditions were especially harsh for women in British Columbia after a prolonged period of recession in 1912. Not only were women often the first employees to be laid off, they received significantly less wage than men and qualified for fewer government benefits. To ease the economic burden that women in Vancouver faced during this period for time, Helena organized a toy-making co-operative while pressuring the provincial government to provide more assistance for women.
  The toy-making co-operative officially opened in October 1914, when Christmas was just around the corner. The festive season created a demand for toys and an economic opportunity for the co-operative. By 9 November, 60 girls and women were making dolls and toys for a daily wage of $3.50. By the time Christmas arrived, the co-operative started to additionally include cooking and dressmaking as part of their services. More than 150 women were employed by the co-operative before 1914 came to an end. Located at 1027 Robson Street in Vancouver, the site of the co-operative also housed unemployed women with its unused rooms.
  The toy-making co-operative eventually ceased to operate in February 1915, after providing jobs for nearly 500 women in Vancouver and helping 700 women to obtain meal tickets. At the peak of its operation, the co-operative expanded in scale to include a retail outlet at 700 Granville Street. Regardless of its short lifespan, the co-operative was a remarkable achievement as it solved the immediate economic hardships that many women in Vancouver faced.
  Helena continued to fight for economic security and equality for women by campaigning for the inclusion of equal pay for women and men in the constitution of the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council (VTLC). In 1917, she organized the Minimum Wage League, an organization that successfully obtained the Minimum Wage Bill for Women in 1918.
caption: View of the west side of the 700 Block of Granville Street
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