Women as Active Citizens: Glasgow and Edinburghc.1918–1939

Scottish Women and Political Representation in the UK and Scottish Parliaments (1918–2020)

“…In Edinburgh, from the 1870s onwards suffragists organised strategically to get women elected to school boards, parochial boards, and the successor parish councils (Breitenbach, 2019). After 1918, the successor organisations to the suffrage societies, the Women Citizens' Associations and Societies for Equal Citizenship, continued to campaign for equal suffrage, and supported women candidates for councils and parliament (Breitenbach and Wright, 2014). While they claimed success for their efforts, levels of representation nonetheless remained low (Baxter, 2008).…”

Speaking as Citizens: Women’s Political Correspondence to Scottish Newspapers 1918–1928

“…The Scottish context post-1918 Recent work on the post-1918 women's movement in the UK has challenged previous assessments of the movement as divided and in decline. In Scotland, work by scholars such as Sue Innes, Jane Rendall, Esther Breitenbach and Valerie Wright has demonstrated that this period was marked by increasing participation by women in public and political life, particularly at a local-government level (Breitenbach and Wright 2014;Innes 2004;Innes and Rendall 2006). They argue that women were active in many different types of organisations, some but not all party political, and campaigned on a range of issues across the equal rights and social welfare spectrum.…”

“…By the end of its first year, the Edinburgh WCA had over a thousand members and was a large and wellorganised group with a clear idea of women's role in public life and the influence that 'organised women' could wield (Innes, 2004, p.622). At the same time, local government in Scotland acquired greater powers in terms of housing, education, poor relief and hospital provision, all of which might be argued to fall into the realm of women's special interests, which reinforced the demand for women to be represented in local government (Breitenbach and Wright 2014). 'Housekeeper' wrote to the Edinburgh Evening News on 1 January 1920 calling for women to replace those responsible for housing in Edinburgh since 'the selfishness of the Edinburgh authorities responsible for housing is a disgrace'.…”

“…Temperance and Bolshevism Breitenbach and Wright (2014) note that patterns of women's activism generally followed class lines. While the Edinburgh WCA argued about supporting Unionist or Liberal candidates, the Glasgow WCA was closely associated with the Glasgow Good Government Committee set up to combat the growth of socialism in the city.…”

Building an alternative economic network? Consumer cooperation in Scotland from the 1870s to the 1960s†

“…Holford, Reshaping labour , p. 16, cited by Breitenbach and Wright, ‘Women as active citizens’, p. 404.…”