Motion: Celebrating Margaret Bondfield

Celebrating Margaret Bondfield

Lodged by Helen Eadie Standard Motion 24 supporters

The motion

That the Parliament notes that, on 8 June 1929, Margaret Bondfield became the first ever female cabinet minister when she was appointed as Minister of Labour in the then newly-formed Labour administration; considers that this marked a great day for the Labour Party and women's involvement in politics; understands that, by 1929, Bondfield had made several historic achievements, which included being a leading trade unionist in the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, which was a forerunner of the GMB, publishing a report on improving the lives of women working in shops, seconding the motion to the TUC in 1899 to form the Labour Representation Committee, which is now the Labour Party and that, along with Margaret and Mary Macarthur, she formed the first women's general union, the National Federation of Women Workers; understands that she was active in the women's suffrage movement and was the chair of the Adult Suffrage Society; notes her work as a co-operator as an active member of 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 and played what was considered to be a crucial role in the peace movements, and, in marking what it sees as the pioneering efforts of Margaret Bondfield, notes the work of all of the women before and since her who fought for a better society in the co-operative and labour movements, noting all that is still needed to be done.

Supporters (24)