Rachael Vorberg-Rugh University of Liverpool rvr@liverpool.ac.uk

1. ‘The unit of the Co-operative movement...is a woman’ Rachael Vorberg-Rugh University of Liverpool rvr@liverpool.ac.uk

2. Co-operative Business History • With John Wilson (Liverpool) & Tony Webster (LJMU) • History of the CWS/The Co-operative Group, 1863-present • Research underway since 2009-10 • Due for publication, autumn 2013 – 150th anniversary 1863 1940s 2012

4. Beatrice Potter Webb (1891) “Taken as a general fact, the unit of the Co-operative movement – the customer – is a woman... If the democratic form of Co-operation is to be a great fact as well as a great example... then a vigorous and successful propaganda among female customers must stand foremost in the present and future programme of Co-operative leaders, and the women of England must take their place as energetic,loyal, and experienced members in all associations of consumers.”

5. UK consumer co-ops – business model

6. Consumer co-ops: a gendered business model • Family economic unit: husbands = wage earners, wives = wage spenders • Co-operative businesses depend on sale of food & household goods → women = customers • Dividends = means of saving, stretching family income through shopping (women) • Consumer ideology & reality created space for women’s involvement Still from Men of Rochdale (1944)

7. Women members • Ripponden Society • Founded,1832 • Of its 45 members in 1834, 7 women • Rochdale Pioneers • 1st woman member,Eliza Brierley, March 1846 • Membership rules • 1 per household (usually male)

8. Access to leadership • Membership = voting rights, access to leadership • 19th century membership = 1 per household (usually male)

9. Somethoughts • Co-operatives are community and society organisations – and movements to change communities and society for the better • Adapt to changes and challenges – external and internal – evolution of movement goals • Involving consumers in the movement – moving from customer to active member – always a challenge for co-operatives • Women’s Co-operative Guild is part of this mix – pressure group to increase women’s voice in co-operative democracy

10. Women’s League for the Spread of Co-operation “What are men always urged to do when there is a meeting held at any place to encourage or to start co‑operative institutions? – come! help? vote! criticise! act! What are women encouraged to do? – come and buy! That is all. We can be independent members of our stores, but we are only asked to come and ‘buy’.” Co-operative News (6 January, 1883) Alice Acland c1904

11. Membership and leadership • Early Guild campaigns • Attend meetings • Open membership • Election to local and national committees • “Basket power” argument – women’s expertise as consumers is valuable Guild membership card, 1908

12. Basket power and co-operative business “If the women withheld their baskets from the stores on Friday and Saturday there would be an end of distributive co-operation.” – Mr Bailey, Co-operative Congress 1894 • CWS sales, 1912 • Grocery/household, 81% • Drapery, 8% • Boots & shoes, 4% • Furnishings, 3% • Coal, 3% • Clothing, 2%

13. The ‘head and the neck’? “Just exactly as the neck moved the head, so the women of Co-operative Societies could move their Management and other Committees as they desired.” – Walter Nield, Bolton Co-operative Record, 1908 Guild ‘push the sales’ event, c1910s

14. Women on local committees, 1890-1920 Open membership • 1902, 153 societies have open membership (218 respond, over 1000 societies exist) • 1903, 20 of 224 Oldham Guildswomen have co-op vote Education coms • First = 1884 • 1900 = 159 • 1920 = 756 Management coms • First = 6 women, 1890 • 1900 = 30 • 1920 = 241

15. Training for leadership • Guild branches • How to read balance sheets, conduct meetings, speak and write papers; ‘Woman’s Corner’ • Confidence-building, mentoring • Education • 1890s, district & sectional conferences • 1907, branch officials classes • 1913, 1 & 2 day schools, ‘train the trainers’ • Winter 1916-17, over 300 attend Margaret Llewelyn Davies, c1894

16. Mrs Neal (Bowes Park WCG), 1911 “She finds she wants power to secure the basket power! But how? She is nobody at the quarterly meetings. Only members can make their opinions felt with a vote! She becomes a member, and enters on a fuller life. She is free, with a recognised right to confer and decide on the questions that so much interest her now. ... Then, to get the power to discharge her responsibilities, a co-operative woman’s place and work in the movement is on the management committee.”

17. Mrs Neal (Bowes Park WCG), 1911 “The deep-rooted opposition she meets when trying to get elected to a responsible position opens her eyes wide to a very great wrong in the movement, and a serious drawback to its success—the refusal of equality of opportunity to women. And as she gains co-operative knowledge and experience, she finds the same blundering policy throughout the movement—wholesale as well as retail, productive as well as distributive. With the exception that proves therule, men are in every position of authority and power—men managers, men buyers, men auditors, men directors; men everywhere, ruling and controlling.”

18. Mrs Neal (Bowes Park WCG), 1911 “... If women had been equally trained in true co-operation, would stale goods and a slow sale have been the case in her store? Would unhygienic conditions have prevailed if woman’s housewifely spirit had been allowed full play? Would women have been disloyal to the store if they had shared its responsibility? Would men have to be running about all over the country teaching women about their own cocoas and jellies—and actually how to make them!—if they had equally authorised their production? ...Would there have been the necessity for a minimum wage campaign for the women workers if co-operative women had shared the control of co-operative labour conditions?”

19. Mary Cottrell (1868-1969) • Born in Sheffield; pupil-teacher at 14, head teacher at 22 • Married Frank Cottrell & moved to Birmingham, 1897; joined BCS • Move to Bourneville, 1900; joins Ten Acres & Stirchley Society and Guild branch • Elected to Education Committee; 1909-32, Management Committee • Birmingham City Council, 1917 • Consumers’ Council, 1918 • Midland Sectional Board, 1919 • CWS Board, 1922-36 • Next woman on CWS: Eva Dodds, 1959

20. First women on sectional boards 1893 – Southern, Mrs Mary Lawrenson 1917 – South Western, Mrs Mary Found 1919 – Midlands, Mrs Mary Cottrell 1923 – North Western, Mrs AH Nevitt 1928 – Scottish, Mrs Isa McNair 1935 – Northern, Mrs LM Beresford 1940 – Irish, Mrs MI Girvan 1948 – North Eastern, Mrs N Pearson 1968 – Western, Mrs G Pleece Mary Lawrenson Southern Sectional Board, 1904

21. What’s wrong with this picture? CWS pamphlet, c1930s

22. “Women do the shopping. Why not consult them about the goods they buy?” Women’s Outlook, 1942

24. Sharing women’s voices: www.uk.coop/womenschallenge Launched: 3 July 2012