(1873-03-17)17 March 1873 Chard, Somerset, England
Died
16 June 1953(1953-06-16) (aged 80) Sanderstead, Surrey, England
Political party
Labour
Margaret Grace BondfieldCH JP (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in the UK, when she was appointed Minister of Labour in the Labour government of 1929–31. She had earlier become the first woman to chair the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Bondfield was born in humble circumstances and received limited formal education. After serving an apprenticeship to an embroideress she worked as a shop assistant in Brighton and London. She was shocked by the working conditions of shop staff, particularly within the "living-in" system, and became an active member of the shopworkers' union. She began to move in socialist circles, and in 1898 was appointed assistant secretary of the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks (NAUSAWC). She was later prominent in several women's socialist movements: she helped to found the Women's Labour League (WLL) in 1906, and was chair of the Adult Suffrage Society. Her standpoint on women's suffrage—she favoured extending the vote to all adults regardless of gender or property, rather than the limited "on the same terms as men" agenda pursued by the militant suffragists—divided her from the militant leadership.
After leaving her union post in 1908 Bondfield worked as organising secretary for the WLL and later as women's officer for the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (NUGMW). She was elected to the TUC Council in 1918, and became its chairman in 1923, the year she was first elected to parliament. In the short-lived minority Labour government of 1924 she served as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Labour. Her term of cabinet office in 1929–31 was marked by the economic crises that beset the second Labour government. Her willingness to contemplate cuts in unemployment benefits alienated her from much of the Labour movement, although she did not follow Ramsay MacDonald into the National Government that assumed office when the Labour government fell in August 1931. Bondfield remained active in NUGMW affairs until 1938, and during the Second World War carried out investigations for the Women's Group on Public Welfare.
^"Who was the first female Cabinet minister?". The Telegraph. 8 June 2016. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
and 22 Related for: Margaret Bondfield information
Margaret Grace Bondfield CH JP (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became...
Bondfield is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: MargaretBondfield (1873–1953), British Labour politician Clive Bondfield (born c. 1899)...
Minister (MargaretBondfield) – for Labour Party 1926: Member to represent more than one constituency in non-consecutive terms (MargaretBondfield) – Labour...
the problem of unemployment, was unable to offer a solution, while MargaretBondfield also failed to come up with an imaginative response. Other members...
than a year in power. Following his resignation in 1926 to allow MargaretBondfield to take a seat in Parliament, Hastings returned to his work as a barrister...
(PDF). Parliament of the United Kingdom. p. 5. Claytor, Martin. "MargaretBondfield - The first woman minister in Parliament". Historic UK. Retrieved...
Arthur Henderson, and trade union activists such as Ben Tillett and MargaretBondfield. Amid these distractions she continued to study hard, and won several...
improvement of women's labour conditions. In 1902 Mary became friends with MargaretBondfield who encouraged her to attend the union's national conference where...
Scott 1866–1962 Writer, campaigner on rural issues 1 January 1948 MargaretBondfield 1873–1953 Pioneering woman politician 1 January 1948 Vita Sackville-West...
eradication of needless drudgery and squalour from home life. Together with MargaretBondfield, Phillips "worked tirelessly within the WLL to raise the political...
cabinet minister and Privy Council member was the Labour Party's MargaretBondfield, Minister of Labour from 1929 to 1931. Although the Representation...
Lawson, Scottish-American geologist and academic (b. 1861) 1953 – MargaretBondfield, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (b....
society's members were often referred to as "adultists". In 1906 MargaretBondfield became chair of the society, which supported the Franchise and Removal...
tackle unemployment, assisted by the young radical Oswald Mosley. MargaretBondfield was appointed as Minister of Labour, becoming the first-ever woman...
student village of the Waterside Campus, and include Francis Crick; MargaretBondfield; John Clare; and Charles Bradlaugh. A former ground-floor flat in...
Massachusetts, in 1638. His childhood was spent at Sanderstead Court. MargaretBondfield (1873–1953), the first woman to sit in Cabinet in the United Kingdom...
Nicoll Barnes George Lansbury Mary Barbour Harry Barnes John Beckett MargaretBondfield George Buchanan Joseph Burgess John Burns Charles Roden Buxton James...
Beijing, whose name is changed to Beiping ("Northern Peace"). 1929 – MargaretBondfield is appointed Minister of Labour. She is the first woman appointed...
22 January 1924 Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour MargaretBondfield 23 January 1924 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Josiah Wedgwood...
and the Liberal David Lloyd George, as well as Ramsay MacDonald and MargaretBondfield from his own Labour party (he targeted the latter for her unwillingness...
December 1875), educator and mathematician who invented umbral calculus MargaretBondfield (1873–1953), Labour MP for Northampton in 1923, first female Cabinet...
Steel-Maitland, Bt 6 November 1924 4 June 1929 Conservative Stanley Baldwin MargaretBondfield 7 June 1929 24 August 1931 (lost seat 1931) Labour Ramsay MacDonald...
Global Information