Constructing Labour Woman
In the 1920s, Margaret Bondfield had symbolized more than any other individual the status of women in Labour Party politics; she was a Member of Parliament in 1923-1924 and from 1926, a junior Minister in 1924, and the first woman Cabinet Minister in 1929. This was coupled with prominence in the trade union world, playing a key role in the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Her role in both industrial and political activities involved a discourse that played down and often denied the distinctiveness of women 's interests within the labour movement. Pre-1914, Bondfield had been a women's trade union organizer, an adult suffragist, and a prominent member of the Independent Labour Party. Later she marginalized and frequently criticized feminist concerns, her socialism became much more formal, and her union was absorbed into the National Union of General and Municipal Workers. Within both party and the TUC she became a stalwart of the Right, a keen supporter of Ramsay MacDonald and a strong anti-Communist.
Keywords: Margaret Bondfield, Labour Party, women, Ramsay MacDonald, trade unions, Trades Union Congress
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