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Mary Reid Anderson (née Macarthur; 13 August 1880 – 1 January 1921) was a Scottish
suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...
(although at odds with the national groups who were willing to let a minority of women gain the franchise) and was a leading trades unionist. She was the general secretary of the
Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL pla ...
and was involved in the formation of the
National Federation of Women Workers The National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland active in the first part of the 20th century. Instrumental in winning women workers the right to a minimum wage for the first ti ...
and
National Anti-Sweating League The National Anti-Sweating League is the name adopted by two groups of social reformers in Australia and Britain at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Both campaigned against the poor conditions endured by many workers in so-ca ...
. In 1910, Macarthur led the women chain makers of
Cradley Heath Cradley Heath is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, west of Birmingham. The town was known for the manufacture of chains in the first half of the twentiet ...
to victory in their fight for a minimum wage and led a strike to force employers to implement the rise. Around 1901, Macarthur became a trade unionist after hearing a speech made by John Turner about how badly some workers were being treated by their employers. She became secretary of the Ayr branch of the Shop Assistants' Union, and her interest in this union led to her work for the improvement of women's labour conditions. In 1902 Mary became friends with
Margaret Bondfield Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a priv ...
who encouraged her to attend the union's national conference where Macarthur became the first woman to be elected to the union's national executive.


Family life

Macarthur was born on 13 August 1880 in
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, the eldest of six children to John Duncan Macarthur, the owner of a drapery business, and his wife, Anne Elizabeth Martin. She attended Glasgow Girls' High School, and, after editing the school magazine, decided she wanted to become a full-time writer. After her Glasgow schooling she spent time studying in Germany before returning to Scotland to work for her father as a bookkeeper. After becoming politically active, Mary met and eventually married
William Crawford Anderson William Crawford Anderson (13 February 1877 – 25 February 1919) was a British socialist politician. Born in 1877 at Findon, Aberdeenshire, the name Crawford in fact does not appear on his birth certificate. His father Francis Anderson was a ...
, the chairman of the executive committee of the
Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...
, in 1911, ten years after he first proposed. Their first child died at birth in 1913, and daughter Anne Elizabeth was born in 1915.


Trade union activism and support for universal suffrage

In 1903 Macarthur moved to London where she became Secretary of the
Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL pla ...
. Active in the fight for the vote, she was totally opposed to those in the
NUWSS The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In March 1919 it w ...
and the
WSPU The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...
who were willing to accept the franchise being given to only certain groups of women. Macarthur believed that a limited franchise would disadvantage the working class and feared that it might act against the granting of full adult suffrage, and this view did not make her welcome in the more high profile suffrage movements. Macarthur's view was criticised by the middle-class leaders of the Votes for Woman movement who thought that a partial enfranchisement was more likely to succeed and that would make it easier to achieve a full suffrage. The Women's Trade Union League united women-only unions from different trades including a mixed-class membership. The conflicting aims of activists affiliated with different classes and organisations barred the league from affiliation to the Trades Union Congress. To solve this conflict Macarthur founded the
National Federation of Women Workers The National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland active in the first part of the 20th century. Instrumental in winning women workers the right to a minimum wage for the first ti ...
in 1906. The model for the Federation was a general labour union, "open to all women in unorganised trades or who were not admitted to their appropriate trade union." This federation pre-dated the National Union of General Workers (formed in 1921) and led by and for women. In general Macarthur chose the universal suffrage position over gradualist approaches both within the Trade Union movement and the Women's Rights movement. "Mary Macarthur estimated that if women were enfranchised on the same terms as men, less than 5 per cent of working women would be eligible." (Tony Cliff quoting the Proceedings, National Women's Trade Union League, USA (1919), p. 29.) Macarthur was involved in the Exhibition of Sweated Industries in 1905 and the formation of Britain's Anti-Sweating League in 1906. The following year she founded the ''Women Worker'', a monthly newspaper for women trade unionists. Then in 1908, after six weeks in hospital with diphtheria, she presented findings of her research (in poorer areas of the capital), with sweated homeworking women, to the House of Commons Select Committee on Home Working. A form of minimum wage law, the Trade Board Act 1909 was eventually passed from the activism and the evidence Macarthur and others had gathered and the changes that she had lobbied for. In 1909 ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' published an article about Macarthur which bears witness to some of the divisions in the Women's movement at the time and across the Atlantic. In 1910 the women chainmakers of
Cradley Heath Cradley Heath is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, west of Birmingham. The town was known for the manufacture of chains in the first half of the twentiet ...
won a battle to establish the right to a fair wage following a 10-week strike. This landmark victory changed the lives of thousands of workers who were earning little more than 'starvation wages'. Macarthur was the trade unionist who led the women chain makers in their fight for better pay. In reference to female earnings, Macarthur commented that "women are unorganised because they are badly paid, and poorly paid because they are unorganised.". The dispute ended on the 22 October 1910 when the last of the employers agreed to pay the minimum wage. The
Cradley Heath Workers' Institute The Cradley Heath Workers' Institute (known locally as the 'Stute') was built between 1911 and 1912 in Lomey Town, Cradley Heath, West Midlands, England. It was built as a social centre for the people of Cradley Heath and surrounding areas withi ...
was funded using money left over from the strike fund of the 1910. Because of the fame she had earned as an organiser at Cradley Heath Macarthur was immediately sent for in August, 1911, when the Bermondsey Uprising began. Early in 1911
Ada Salter Ada Salter (''née'' Brown; 20 July 1866 – 4 December 1942) was an English social reformer, environmentalist, pacifist and Quakers, Quaker, President of the Women's Labour League and President of the National Gardens Guild. She was one of the ...
had founded a
Women's Labour League The Women's Labour League (WLL) was a pressure organisation, founded in London in 1906, to promote the political representation of women in parliament and local bodies. The idea was first suggested by Mary Macpherson, a linguist and journalist wh ...
(WLL) branch in Bermondsey and was recruiting women in the local food and drink factories to Macarthur's NFWW. In August, one of the hottest on record, the appalling conditions in some of these factories became unbearable and 14,000 women suddenly walked out on strike from 22 factories. This was the Bermondsey Uprising. Though inspired by Salter, it was Macarthur who organised the strikers, led the negotiations and secured a historic victory for low-paid women. The highlight was a mass rally in
Southwark Park Southwark Park is located in Rotherhithe, in central South East London, England, and is managed by the London Borough of Southwark. It first opened in 1869 by the Metropolitan Board of Works as one of its first parks. It was designed by Alexander ...
where the blistering oratory of Macarthur was backed up by suffragists
Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (; 5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was an English Feminism, feminist and Socialism, socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise worki ...
,
Charlotte Despard Charlotte Despard (née French; 15 June 1844 – 10 November 1939) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish suffragist, socialist, pacifist, Sinn Féin activist, and novelist. She was a founding member of the Women's Freedom League, the Women's Pe ...
and
George Lansbury George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who led the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. Apart from a brief period of ministerial office during the Labour government of 1 ...
. In 1911, Macarthur also married
William Crawford Anderson William Crawford Anderson (13 February 1877 – 25 February 1919) was a British socialist politician. Born in 1877 at Findon, Aberdeenshire, the name Crawford in fact does not appear on his birth certificate. His father Francis Anderson was a ...
, chairman of the executive committee of the Labour party, who was from 1914 to 1918 member for the Attercliffe division of Sheffield.


Cat and Mouse Act and war effort

In August 1913, in response to the government
Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act 1913, commonly referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act, was an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under H. H. Asquith's Liberal government in 1913. The Cat and Mouse Act wa ...
whereby hunger striking
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
prisoners would be released when too weak to be active and permitting their re-arrest as soon as they were active, Macarthur took part in a delegation to meet with the Home Secretary,
Reginald McKenna Reginald McKenna (6 July 1863 – 6 September 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. His first Cabinet post under Henry Campbell-Bannerman was as President of the Board of Education, after which he served as First Lord of the Admira ...
and discuss the
Cat and Mouse Act The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act 1913, commonly referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act, was an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under H. H. Asquith's Liberal government in 1913. The Cat and Mouse Act wa ...
. McKenna was unwilling to talk to them and when the women refused to leave the House of Commons, Macarthur and
Margaret McMillan Margaret McMillan (20 July 1860 – 27 March 1931) was a nursery school pioneer and lobbied for the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act. Working in deprived districts of London, notably Deptford, and Bradford, she agitated for reforms to im ...
were physically ejected but Evelyn Sharp and
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence (; 21 October 1867 – 11 March 1954) was a British women's rights activist, suffragist and pacifist. Early life Pethick-Lawrence was born in 1867 in Clifton, Bristol as Emmeline Pethick. He ...
were arrested and sent to
Holloway Prison HM Prison Holloway was a British prison security categories, closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, ...
. Macarthur was a 'firm believer in universal rather than purely women's suffrage, and she had been careful not to allow the fight for the vote to become confused with her campaigns for better pay and conditions. She was well aware that success depended to a great extent on the support of the male trade unionist and politicians. When, at the end of the war, women aged 30 and over were given the vote, and were allowed for the first time to stand for Parliament, Mary saw her next challenge'. Although an opponent of the war, Macarthur nonetheless became secretary of the Ministry of Labour's central committee on women's employment.


The Stourbridge Parliamentary Election 1918

After the
Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) was an act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The act extended the franchise in pa ...
had enfranchised women over the age of thirty and the
Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. At 41 words, it is the shortest UK statute. Background The ...
allowed women to stand for Parliament, Macarthur stood as Labour Party candidate in the newly created county constituency Stourbridge, Worcestershire at the General Election on 14 December 1919. This was a large constituency which included Halesowen, Oldbury, Cradley and Warley Woods. It did not include the Cradley Heath area where she had led the chain makers' dispute. The returning officer insisted that she was listed under her married name of Mrs W.C. Anderson. The defending Liberal MP was John Wilson a director of the
Albright and Wilson Albright may refer to: *Albright (surname) *Albright, Alberta, Canada *Albright, West Virginia, United States *Albright College, a liberal arts college located in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States *Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, ...
chemicals firm in Oldbury, which was in the constituency. She was also opposed by
Victor Fisher Frederick Victor Fisher (10 July 1870 – 30 January 1954) was a British political activist. Fisher was born in London; his mother was English, and his father was Hungarian. He was privately educated in London and Paris, then worked in journalis ...
of the
National Democratic and Labour Party The National Democratic and Labour Party, usually abbreviated to National Democratic Party (NDP), was a short-lived political party in the United Kingdom. Its predecessors were the British Workers League, British Workers' National League, and the ...
, who had the support of the Coalition, secret funding from the Unionists, and ran a particularly abusive campaign. During the campaign she worked closely with John Davison, the Labour candidate in neighbouring
Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before bei ...
to defeat
Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed Suffragette bombing and arson ca ...
who was running as the Coalition candidate with Unionist support. Macarthur was defeated, as were most anti-war candidates, including her husband,
William Anderson William Anderson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * William Anderson (artist) (1757–1837), painter of marine and historical paintings * William Anderson (theatre) (1868–1940), Australian stage entrepreneur * William Anderson (1911–1986 ...
, who was defending Sheffield, Attercliffe.


Later years and death

Mary Macarthur continued her involvement with the Women's Trade Union League and was instrumental in its eventual integration as the Women's Section of the Trades Union Congress, helping to amplify the voice of working women within the broader labor movement. In 1918 she employed Dorothy Elliott to be employed by the
National Federation of Women Workers The National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland active in the first part of the 20th century. Instrumental in winning women workers the right to a minimum wage for the first ti ...
. Macarthur was the General Secretary and Elliott was employed to recruit workers into the union. She was paid less than she had earned as a munitions worker during the war and she was expected to work every day of the week on a 14 hour day. William Anderson died during the 1919 influenza epidemic. Mary Macarthur Anderson died of cancer on 1 January 1921, at the age of 40, in Golders Green, London.


Legacy

An exhibition commemorating Macarthur is displayed in the
Cradley Heath Workers' Institute The Cradley Heath Workers' Institute (known locally as the 'Stute') was built between 1911 and 1912 in Lomey Town, Cradley Heath, West Midlands, England. It was built as a social centre for the people of Cradley Heath and surrounding areas withi ...
, which has been rebuilt at the
Black Country Living Museum The Black Country Living Museum (formerly the Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is located in the centre of the Black Country, west of Birming ...
. The Mary Macarthur Scholarship Fund and Mary Macarthur Educational Trust were established in 1922 and 1968 respectively, with the aims "to advance the educational opportunities of working women". Awards are made in memory of "pioneers of trade unionism", Mary Macarthur, Emma Paterson, Lady Dilke and
Jessie Stephen Jessie Stephen, Order of the British Empire, MBE (19 April 1893 12 June 1979) was a twentieth-century British suffragette, labour activist and local councillor. She grew up in Scotland and won a scholarship to train as a teacher. Family financ ...
. Their assets were transferred to the TUC Educational Trusts in 2010. The Mary Macarthur Holiday Trust, based in
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
, helps fund holidays for vulnerable and needy women. A statue was unveiled of Mary Macarthur in Mary Macarthur Gardens in
Cradley Heath Cradley Heath is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, west of Birmingham. The town was known for the manufacture of chains in the first half of the twentiet ...
, West Midlands in 2012. She is also remembered in the name of Mary Macarthur Drive, Cradley Heath. On the eve of
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...
2017, a blue plaque was unveiled at her home at 42 Woodstock Road in Golders Green, where she lived while she was at her most prominent. Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the
plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...
of the
statue of Millicent Fawcett The statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, honours the British suffragist leader and social campaigner Dame Millicent Fawcett. It was made in 2018 by Gillian Wearing. Following a campaign and petition by the activist Caroli ...
in
Parliament Square Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and ...
, London, unveiled in 2018. There is social housing in London named after Mary Macarthur at Field Road,
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...
; Walter Street,
Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common la ...
; and Wythenshawe Road,
Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fo ...
.


In popular culture

Mary Macarthur was featured in the Townsend Theatre Productions touring folk balla
Rouse Ye Women
during April 2019. This included a performance at Cradley Heath Library
Bryony Purdue
played the role of Macarthur supported by Neil Gore and Rowan Godel. There is an annual festival organised by local trade unionists each July in Cradley Heath to commemorate the 1910 chain makers' strike.


Gallery


See also

*
History of feminism The history of feminism comprises the narratives (chronological or thematic) of the movements and ideologies which have aimed at equal rights for women. While feminists around the world have differed in causes, goals, and intentions depending ...
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the publi ...
*
Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...
*
Women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
*
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Brita ...


References


Publications


Mary Macarthur 1880-1921 The Working Woman’s Champion RIGHTING THE WRONG By Cathy Hunt
(2019) * Hallam, David J.A
Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918
(Studley 2018). This includes a chapter on her election campaign in 1918. * Graham Taylor, Ada Salter: Pioneer of Ethical Socialism (2016) * S. Boston, Women Workers and the Trade Unions (1980) * Margaret Bondfield, A Life's Work (1948) * M.A. Hamilton, Mary Macarthur (1925)


External links


Cradley Women Chainmakers' Festival

Election manifesto







Article – Margaret Bondfield and Mary Macarthur : their work to organize working women

Mary’s Manifesto – Election Promises to Stourbridge Folk from 1918


* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macarthur, Mary Scottish women's rights activists 1880 births 1921 deaths Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Trade unionists from Glasgow Scottish women in politics Scottish suffragists Scottish women trade unionists