Title: Women's Labour League
Description: This collection consists of the conference proceedings, annual reports, and publications from the Women's Labour League and the Labour Party Women's Organization. The Women's Labour League (WLL) was a UK-based feminist-driven organization aimed at increasing women's involvement in Parliament and other significant political forums. The WLL's inaugural conference was held in 1906 in Leicester, and it was attended by several prominent socialist women, including Margaret MacDonald, Marion Phillips, and Margaret Bondfield. The organization's primary goal was the achievement of women's suffrage, but it also advocated for the promotion of women's rights in the UK more generally. In 1918, in an effort to increase its outreach, the WLL dissolved as an independent institution and effectively became a branch of the Labour Party, establishing itself as the Labour Party Women's Organization. Much of the collection relates to organizational conferences. Yearly conference proceedings and annual reports from 1906 to 1918 provide insight into the operations and program work of the Women's Labour League. The conference proceedings of the subsequent Labour Party Women's Organization begin in 1919 and continue through its fifty-third conference in 1977, after which it merged with the Labour Party's main conference. The remaining files in this collection are printed periodicals. There are twenty-eight issues of the League Leaflet, offering insight into the Women's Labour League from 1911 to 1913. The complete sixty-one volume run of The Labour Woman, a magazine that emphasized the work of the Labour Party Women's Organization, highlights the efforts and contributions of women in the party from 1913 to the final issue in 1971. The proceedings, reports, and periodicals in this collection provide exclusive insight into the progression of the Women's Labour League from its origins as a pressure or interest group in 1906 to its affiliations, negotiations, and eventual merger with the UK Labour Party in 1977.
Subjects: Archives, Sources, History, Women labor union members, Women's Labour League
Places: Great Britain