page_title: Beatrice Webb
section_title: A pioneer in social research and policy-making
hierarchical_section_title: Beatrice Webb / A pioneer in social research and policy-making
caption_attribution_description: English: Beatrice &amp; Sidney Webb working toggther at a table. Published in Beatrice Webb's second volume of autobiography 'Our Partnership' (1948). Martha Beatrice Webb (1858-1943); nee Potter, social reformer. Sidney James Webb (1859-1947); Baron Passfield; politician IMAGELIBRARY/1385 Persistent URL: http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&amp;id=IMAGELIBRARY/1385
context_page_description: Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, FBA, was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term collective bargaining. She was among the founders of the London School of Economics and played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society.
context_section_description: One of Beatrice's older sisters, Catherine, became a well-known social worker. After Catherine married Leonard Courtney, Beatrice took over her work as a voluntary rent-collector in the model dwellings at Katharine Buildings, Wapping, operated by the East End Dwellings Company.
  The young Beatrice also assisted her cousin by marriage Charles Booth in his pioneering survey of the Victorian slums of London, work which eventually became the massive 17-volume Life and Labour of the People of London (1902–1903).
  These experiences stimulated a critical attitude to current ideas of philanthropy.
  In 1890 Beatrice Potter was introduced to Sidney Webb, whose help she sought with her research. They married in 1892, and until her death 51 years later shared political and professional activities. When her father died in January 1892, leaving Potter an endowment of £1,000 pounds a year, she had a private income for life with which to support herself and the research projects she pursued.
  The Webbs became active members of the Fabian Society. With the Fabians' support, Beatrice Webb co-authored books and pamphlets on socialism and the co-operative movement including The History of Trade Unionism (1894) and Industrial Democracy (1897). In 1895, the Fabians used part of an unexpected legacy of £10,000 from Henry Hutchinson, a solicitor from Derby, to found the London School of Economics and Political Science.
  After consulting Dr. Andrea Rabagliati for health problems, Webb became a vegetarian in 1902 and shortly thereafter began a vegetarian salon for socialists. By 1908, she was a vice-president of the National Food Reform Association. Webb was a lacto-vegetarian, she described herself as an "anti-flesh-fish-egg-alcohol-coffee-and-sugar eater".
caption: Beatrice and Sidney Webb working together in 1895
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