Rachael Vorberg-Rugh

University of Liverpoolrvr@liverpool.ac.uk

‘The unit of the Co-operative movement...is a woman’

With John Wilson (Liverpool) & Tony Webster (LJMU)History of the CWS/The Co-operative Group,

1863-presentResearch underway since 2009-10Due for publication, autumn 2013 – 150th anniversary

Co-operative Business History

1863 1940s 2012

“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.”

Beatrice Potter Webb (1891)

UK consumer co-ops – business model

Family economic unit: husbands = wage earners,

wives = wage spendersCo-operative businesses depend on sale of food

& household goods → women = customersDividends = means of saving, stretching family

income through shopping (women)

Consumer ideology & reality created space for women’s involvement

Consumer co-ops: a gendered business model

Still from Men of Rochdale (1944)

Ripponden Society Founded,1832Of its 45 members in 1834, 7 women

Rochdale Pioneers1st woman member,Eliza Brierley, March 1846

Membership rules1 per household (usually male)

Women members

Access to leadership Membership = voting rights, access to leadership

19th century membership = 1 per household (usually male)

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

Some thoughts

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 Aclandc1904

Early Guild campaigns– Attend meetings– Open membership– Election to local and national

committees“Basket power” argument –

women’s expertise as consumers is valuable

Membership and leadership

Guild membership card, 1908

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%

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

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

Women on local committees, 1890-1920

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

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.”

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.”

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?”

Mary Cottrell (1868-1969)Born in Sheffield; pupil-teacher at 14, head teacher at 22Married Frank Cottrell & moved to Birmingham, 1897;

joined BCSMove to Bourneville, 1900; joins Ten Acres

& Stirchley Society and Guild branchElected to Education Committee;

1909-32, Management CommitteeBirmingham City Council, 1917Consumers’ Council, 1918Midland Sectional Board, 1919CWS Board, 1922-36Next woman on CWS: Eva Dodds, 1959

First women on sectional boards1893 – 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

Southern Sectional Board, 1904

Mary Lawrenson

CWS pamphlet, c1930s

What’s wrong with this picture?

“Women do the shopping. Why not consult them about

the goods they buy?”

Women’s Outlook, 1942

Challenge Area Target

Challenge 1 Democracy and Representation

Achieving equity in representation in our democratic structures

Challenge 2 Employment and Leadership

Having more women in senior management roles within our corporate structure and businesses

Challenge 3 Reshaping Society Campaigning for gender equality across economic and social participation, in order that women’s voices can be heard and that society’s structures and actions better reflect the makeup of the population.

Sharing women’s voices:www.uk.coop/

womenschallenge

Launched: 3 July 2012