binger of the creation of the the strike of. women workers at Bryant and May's match facEleanor Marx, the daughter of Marx, played a leading role in the Gasworkers the 1896 there were still only 142,000 women in trade unions compared to 1,466,000 men — women com9 per cent of all trade unionists. Only 3 per cent of women workers were in unions comnared to 4 per cent of men. The proportion of women in unions actually fell during the last decade of the nineteenth century -reaching a low point of 7.5 per cent of members (See Female membership of trade unions expand in the period leading to World War I but even then it reached a peak of ll per 1912. Scarcely more than 1 in 10 trade unionists was a woman on the eve of World War 1. In 1911 only 7 per cent of women workers were in unions comparc to a quarter or male workels Neither was there any great wave of women during the inter-war period. There was, it is true, a temporary peak of 19 per cent of trade unionists being women in 1918 at the peak of war time employment -with large numbers of men in the army ana win women naving moved mto mibut this rapidly declined. By 1924 only 15 per cent of trade unionists were women. By 1933 only 12 per cent of women workers were in unions comcent of male workers.
On the eve of World War II, in 1939, still only 16 per cent of trade unionists On the political field the situation was parallel. The wave of unionisation in 1889 was followed by the creation of the impact which had created the new general unions shifted the political create the Labour Party as opposed to the support for the Liberals which had been shown craft unions. But the Labour Party failed to take the lead in the struggle of women for the vote. The suffragettes, to the eternal disgrace of the Labour Party, had to fight without 1911 1920 1933' 1948 (millions) 2.8 6.9 3.6 7.5 0.3 1.3 0.7 1.7 2.7 7.1 3.5 7.1 0.4 1.1 1.0 2.1 (%) decisive Labour support for the right of women to vote.
On the internal Labour Party front there was even a step backwards for the rights of women. In 1906 women won the right to elect their own the NEC scorescillatives Labour Party. In the 1918 reorganisation of the party this right was taken away however and replaced by election of the women's places on the NEC by the male dominated party conference more precisely by election of the women's 'representatives' by the trade union bureaucracy.
starting in 1889 — although not as pronounced as its exclusion of women manual workers. By 1911 only 13 per cent of trade unionists were white collar workers. (See Table 1). Only 12 per cent of white collar workers were unionised compared to Zl cent of manual workers. By 1920 still only 14 per cent of union members, that is less than 1 in 6, were white collar workers Interestingly however white collar 1979 19813 1940-19 8.8 8.4 + 1.3 3.8 3.7 +2.1 7.4 -V.
5.1 +3.0 +17 +12 membership million. of the manual workers per cent of white collar workers.
pand rapidly per cent of manual workers.
made among white collar workers. the organisationa! tied to the Liberal Party.
it began period.
understood when working class War Il are grasped. union membership proved much more stable in the inter-war period than did manual worker membership. Betweer 1920 and 1931 manual trade unions lost 3.6 million members, but white collar fell by only 0.l At the depth of the depression in 1931 there was almost the same percentage of white collar workers in trade White collar unionism did not exmanual trade unionism during World War Il however. By 1948, 33 per cent of white collar workers were in unions compared to 50 If these facts are taken together then it can be seen that while the question of unionisation of women workers made essentially no progress whatever during the inter-war period some substantial gains in terms of union stability were The specific character of the first two waves of the labour movement in Britain is therefore completely clear. The first wave, lasting from 1851 until it women petered out in the early 1870s, was the unionisation of male skilled workers — form being craft unions. Politically the craft unions were The second wave, whose key points in 1889 and the creation of the Labour was • O1 unionisation and organisation of unskilled male workers. Its political accompaniment was the reformist social democratic Labour Party — in a word second wave development and organisation may be said to extend to 1945, although its first real peak was reached with World War to touch white collar, primarily male, workers in the inter-war The characteristics of the third great wave of the labour movement, the one we are living through today, can only be Sure mendou. transformations in the character of the which followed World the
----- pull-quotes -----
Manual The third feature of the wave of development of the labour movement
manual work percentas of on od manual workers being unionised and 22