Biographies

Margaret Bondfield

Margaret Bondfield, the daughter of William Bondfield and Anne Taylor, was born in Chard, Somerset in 1873. Margaret was Anne's eleventh child and her husband was at that time was sixty-one years old. William Bondfield had worked in the textile industry since he was a young boy and was well known in the area for his radical political beliefs.

At the age of fourteen Margaret left home to serve an apprenticeship in a large draper's shop in Brighton. Margaret became friendly with one of her customers, Louisa Martindale, a strong advocate of women's rights. Margaret was a regular visitor to the Martindale home where she met other radicals living in Brighton. Louisa Martindale lent Margaret books and was an important influence on her political development.

In 1894 Margaret went to live with her brother Frank in London. Margaret found work in a shop and after a short period was elected to the Shop Assistants Union District Council. Margaret began contributing articles to the union journal, The Shop Assistant. In 1898 she created a storm when she described the ideal married couple as one in which both went out to work and shared the household tasks between them.

In 1896 Clementina Black of the Women's Industrial Council asked Margaret Bondfield to carry out an investigation into the pay and conditions of shop workers. Bondfield's report was published in 1898, the same year she was appointed assistant secretary of the Shop Assistants' Union.

As a result of her work for the Women's Industrial Council, Bondfield became known as Britain's leading expert on shop workers and gave evidence to the Select Committee on Shops (1902) and the Select Committee on the Truck System (1907).

In 1908 Bondfield resigned from the Shop Assistants' Union and became secretary of the Women's Labour League. Bondfield was also active in the Women's Co-operative Guild which was campaigning for minimum wage legislation, an improvement in child welfare and action to lower the infant mortality rate.

In 1910 the Liberal Government asked Margaret Bondfield to serve as a member of its Advisory Committee on the Health Insurance Bill. Bondfield's efforts were rewarded when she persuaded the Liberal government to include maternity benefits. Bondfield also influenced their decision to make the benefit the property of the mother.

Margaret Bondfield was Chairperson of the Adult Suffrage Society. Unlike some members of the NUWSS and the WSPU, Bondfield was totally opposed to the idea that initially only certain categories of women should be given the vote. Bondfield believed that a limited franchise would disadvantage the working class and feared that it might act as a barrier against the granting of adult suffrage. This made Bondfield unpopular with middle class suffragettes who saw limited suffrage as an important step in the struggle to win the vote.

Bondfield also disagreed with the position that the WSPU took during the First World War over the recruitment of men to fight in the British Army. Bondfield opposed the war and instead supported a negotiated peace with Germany.

In 1923 Margaret Bondfield became one of the first women to enter the House of Commons when she was elected as Labour MP for Northampton. When Ramsay McDonald became Prime Minister in 1924 he appointed Bondfield as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Labour.

When Ramsay McDonald became Prime Minister for a second time in 1929 he appointed Bondfield as his new Minister of Labour. Bondfield therefore became the first woman in history to gain a place in the British Cabinet. In the financial crisis of 1931, Bondfield upset many members of the Labour Party when she supported the government policy of depriving some married women of their unemployment benefit. Later that year she lost her seat in the general election.

The Labour Party never forgave Bondfield's decision to support McDonald's national government and therefore found it impossible to return to the House of Commons. She continued to be interested in social issues and between 1939 and 1945 was chairperson of the Women's Group on Public Welfare. Margaret Bondfield died in 1953.

Biographical Links

Louise Martindale
Clementina Black
Teresa Billington-Greig

Source Database

6.1
6.2
25.8

Internet Links

The Fawcett Library
http://www.lgu.ac.uk/phil/flnew30.htm

Further Reading

Margaret Bondfield, A Life's Work, Hutchinson (1949)
Mary Agnes Hamilton, Margaret Bondfield, Leonard Parsons (1924)
Marie Roberts (ed.), The Workers, Routledge (1995)

back to top