contribution by Elizannie

Each of my great-grandmothers have been described at various times by various descendants as ‘a strong woman’ [sometimes the adjective has not been so kind as 'strong'!].

But to survive in those times [last forty years of the 19th century onwards] working class women as my great grandmothers were, had to be ‘strong’. One great grandmother was widowed aged just over thirty with three children aged under five.

If one could not support oneself the only ‘state help’ was the workhouse – so it seems as if she married a widower in an ‘arrangement’ in that she could look after his children and and he could support her and her children. They had one child between them who died at an early age and then the second husband died too.

His children were now old enough to work to support themselves and my great grandmother married again. She outlived this husband too but at least her children were now old enough to support her. A not untypical story for the time.

My grandmothers had young children during the First World War. My English grandmother also worked in a munitions factory during the War, led a strike for better pay as the women workers [who got paid less than men, who also went on strike for more pay] could not manage on their pay even when, as in her case, she had a soldier’s pay too.

My Welsh grandmother had struggled feeding four small children when my grandfather was missing in action for many months after he was fighting in the Balkans. [He was eventually found, severely injured, in a French hospital and invalided out of the army. Happily he made a full recovery]

Both grandmothers were nearly forty before they could vote despite having ‘run’ their families in these war years. Mind you, my grandfathers had fought for their country but couldn’t vote for it until 1918 either!] My grandmothers finally got full equality with men to vote in 1928, when the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act was passed.

My mother fought against male discrimination all her life, but still made the tea at political meetings! [Not something that anyone has ever dared ask me to do!] I am just old enough to remember when one never saw a woman clerk on bank counters etc and most doctors were men. I remember the strike of the women sewing machinists at Ford Dagenham in 1968 for equal pay and the Equal Pay Act 1970.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s in several big banks and insurance offices women still had to ask ‘permission’ of thier bosses to get married! Also in the 1970s only half of a wife’s salary was taken into account when a mortgage offer was calculated. In the 1970s I was actually sacked because I was pregnant and too ill to work!

So a little personal reflection of my family women over the last 100 years. What is my conclusion? We all should celebrate International Women’s Day and how far some women have travelled – but we must not sit back and congratulate ourselves. There are a lot of struggles still to undertake on behalf of the exploited everywhere in the world: women and men.

And for all those men sulking at being left out – it is Pancake Day too…

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The full version of this article is here.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

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2. Amber of the Island

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3. Sonia Ali

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