NRO 04415/4/1 Black and white photograph of the Northumberland Labour Women’s Advisory Council 21st birthday celebrations. 

NRO 04415/4/3 Black and white photograph of Ashington Labour Women’s Skiffle Group paying a visit to The Ivy Branch, Ashington Co-operative Guild, Ashington, Northumberland. 

NRO 04415/4/5 Black and white photograph of Ashington Labour Party Women’s Section at the Northumberland Miners’ Picnic at Bedlington, Northumberland. 

In 1906 the Women’s Labour League (WLL) was founded by women to campaign for the vote. The WLL was linked (affiliated) to the Labour Party, which had been a political party since 1900. Lisbeth Simm, the daughter and wife of miners from Cramlington, became an organiser for the WLL in Newcastle and Northumberland. Ethel Bentham, Newcastle’s first female doctor, was also a member of the WLL.

In 1918, when parliament granted the vote to some women (but not on equal terms with men), the WLL became part of the Labour Party. The local branches of the WLL became Women’s Sections. At the county level women, were represented in the Labour Party by the Northumberland Labour Women’s Advisory Council. In turn, the Advisory Council sent delegates to the national women’s conference.  

On a local level, a lot of the work carried out by the Women’s Sections involved fund raising and organising social events. As can be seen in the quote from Mildred Gordon, some women and probably a lot of men in the Labour movement disparaged the work of the Sections. They were often seen as cosy clubs that didn’t engage with larger political questions. 

However, Sections offered women the chance to be part of a local and national organisation. Being part of this larger organisation also offered opportunities for travel, education, and socialising. In mining communities women were often excluded from pubs and working men’s clubs. Being part of this organisation also meant that women were better prepared to offer practical support at times of crisis. During strikes Women’s Sections often set up soup kitchens. 

Women’s Sections held banners and paraded as part of the Miners’ Picnic.  

What I think did happen was that the nature of women’s sections changed. Younger women, who were feminists, had previously ignored women’s sections and even opposed them because they appeared to be organizations of women who were happy to make the tea, raise funds, stuff toys for bazaars, and who saw that as their contribution to the party. They had a cosy social life, which was important to them, but they were not feminists, and did not take up questions of women’s rights, and in a sense their existence held back the fight for women’s rights.  

Mildred Gordon “The Women’s Movement and the Labour Party – An interview with Labour Party feminists in The Feminist Review, Summer 1984, p 75-6