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Framing Working Women’s Rights Internationally: Contributions of the IFTU Women’s International

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The Internationalisation of the Labour Question

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements ((PSHSM))

Abstract

This chapter discusses the politics of the IFTU Women’s International (1924–1945) with regard to women’s right to work, women’s wages and working women’s trade union organising. Situating this history within the international politics of women’s work pursued by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other women’s organisations, the chapter serves to engender the new historiographies of internationalism and to de-marginalise the history of women’s politics pursued within the masculinist world of trade unionism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Geert van Goethem, The Amsterdam International: The World of the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), 1913–1945 (Aldershot, UK and Burlington, USA: Ashgate, 2006): Ch. 5, gives an overview of the history of the IFTU Women’s International. His book has guided me to one portion of important archival sources on the IFTU women.

  2. 2.

    I discuss these issues in more detail in Susan Zimmermann, “Women Workers’ Organizing in Global Perspective: Towards a More Inclusive Feminist History” (in peer review).

  3. 3.

    For the post-meeting frictions, see “TUC General Council. Report by Walter M. Citrine of the Executive Committee Meeting of the IFTU 21–22/11/1929,” University of Warwick, Modern Records Centre, Trades Union Council (henceforth: UWMRC-TUC) MSS.292/915.2/3. In this chapter, some of the original quotes have been translated from German into English; these are my own translations.

  4. 4.

    Quoted in “TUC General Council. Women’s Questions: The Problem of the Work of Married Women, 11/07/1933,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/7.

  5. 5.

    “Protocol Executive Committee Meeting IFTU 29–30/01/1929,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/915.2/3.

  6. 6.

    “Protocol Executive Committee Meeting IFTU 29–30/01/1929”; Die Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung 9, no. 6 (1929): 109.

  7. 7.

    Die Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung 10, no. 1 (1930): 18–19.

  8. 8.

    “TUC General Council. Meeting of the International Committee of Trade Union Women 01–02/10/1929 (Unofficial) Protocol,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/5.

  9. 9.

    This comment, which was based on the consideration that unemployment was most likely here to stay for quite some time, can be found in the Berlin-based Gewerkschaftliche Frauenzeitung, edited by Gertrud Hanna. Gewerkschaftliche Frauenzeitung 13, no. 10 (1929): 76; Die Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung 9, no. 12 (1929): 230–232.

  10. 10.

    Die Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung 9, no. 12 (1929): 230. Gertrud Hanna (whose statement is summarised here) had earlier published several articles in the German trade union and socialist press, in which she carefully analysed and criticized the involvement of the trade unions in Germany in such policies after the war. In these articles, she developed the position reflected in the IFTU resolution, that trade unions must act upon an in-principle gender-neutral standard. This position was also reflected in a declaration adopted by the executive committee of the German ADGB in March 1929.

  11. 11.

    “League of Nations, Advisory Commission for the Protection and Welfare of Children and Young People, Child Welfare Committee, Minutes of the Third Session 02/05/1927–06/05/1927,” League of Nation Archives, Geneva; the quotation is taken from Gertrud Hanna’s discussion of the Committee meeting in an informal letter, “Gertrud Hanna to Martha Mundt 14/10/1929,” Bundesarchiv, Dienststelle Berlin, Berlin-Lichterfelde; Die Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung 9, no. 12 (1929): 230.

  12. 12.

    “Minutes of the Meeting of the International Committee of Trade Union Women, Paris 01/07/1933,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/7.

  13. 13.

    Gertrud Hanna, who in 1929 and during the intra-IFTU exchanges in early 1933 had been the main voice in favour of addressing these trade union policies and requesting gender neutrality in principle, could no longer participate in the debate in the summer of 1933, since the Allgemeine Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund had been destroyed by the National Socialist government a few weeks after its ascent to power.

  14. 14.

    The resolution as adopted was identical to the pre-prepared draft resolution. “Internationale Gewerkschaftliche Frauenkonferenz, Brüssel 28–29/07/1933, Resolutionsentwurf über die Lohnarbeit der Frau,” International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, IFTU Records (henceforth: IISH-IFTU) Inv.-No. 127; Congress Brussels 1933. Report on Activities of the International Federation of Trade Unions 1930–1932 (Paris: IFTU, 1934): 304–305.

  15. 15.

    In Great Britain, even feminist trade unionist and Minister for Labour Margaret Bondfield was involved in such steps. Susan Pedersen, Family, Dependence, and the Origins of the Welfare State: Britain and France, 1914–1945 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993): 300–307; Sheila Lewenhak, Women and Trade Unions: An Outline History of Women in the British Trade Union Movement (London and Tonbridge: Ernest Benn Limited, 1977): 199–202.

  16. 16.

    Die Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung 11, no. 6/7 (1931): 89.

  17. 17.

    It is unclear whether women were present on this occasion. Die Internationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung 12, no. 6 (1932): 101–104.

  18. 18.

    In her report laid before the conference, Valerie Novotná had clarified that such measures were in no way restricted to fascist countries, mentioning Australia, the United States and seven European countries as examples. “International Conference of Women Trade Unionists [07/07/1936], Die Arbeitsfreiheit der Frau …, V. Novotná,” IISH-IFTU Inv.-No. 133.

  19. 19.

    Fourth Congress of the Labour and Socialist International. Reports and Proceedings (Sections III and IX). Fourth International Women’s Conference of the L.S.I. Vienna, July 23rd to 25th, 1931. Report of the Secretariat to the Women’s Conference and Proceedings of the Women’s Conference (Zurich and London: LSI and Labour Party, 1932): ix, 54–55, 78, 83–85, 95.

  20. 20.

    Susan Zimmermann, Frauenpolitik und Männergewerkschaft. Die IGB-Fraueninternationale und die internationale Geschlechterpolitik der Zwischenkriegszeit (Vienna: Löcker Verlag, forthcoming): Ch. 8.

  21. 21.

    “International Conference of Women Trade Unionists [07/07/1936], Die Arbeitsfreiheit der Frau …, V. Novotná,” IISH-IFTU Inv.-No. 133.

  22. 22.

    The latter was true for almost all members.

  23. 23.

    IFTU Women Committee member Jeanne Chevenard, for instance, in her capacity as Secretary of the union of clothing workers, district Rhone, herself repeatedly signed collective agreements which reproduced such gendered unequal pay. Morgan Poggioli, “À travail égal, salaire égal”? La CGT et les femmes au temps du Front populaire. Histoire documentaire (Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, 2012): esp. 54–55; Zimmermann, Frauenpolitik: Chs. 1.2, 3.1, and 4.

  24. 24.

    Protokoll des IV. Ordentlichen Kongresses des Internationalen Gewerkschaftsbundes. Abgehalten im Grand Palais, Paris, vom 1. bis 6. August 1927. Nebst Berichten über die Konferenz der Internationalen Berufssekretariate und über die Internationale Arbeiterinnenkonferenz (Amsterdam: Internationaler Gewerkschaftsbund, 1927): 259–271.

  25. 25.

    International Labour Conference. Tenth Session. Geneva, 1927. Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery. Report and Draft Questionnaire (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1927): 34.

  26. 26.

    “10th International Labour Conference. Committee on Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery. Fourth Sitting, 20/05/1927, Afternoon [Minutes],” International Labour Organization Archives (henceforth: ILOA) D 610/1000/1.

  27. 27.

    Proceedings IFTU 1927: 62.

  28. 28.

    International Labour Conference. Eleventh Session. Geneva, May 1928. Report on Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1928): esp. 9, 104–108, 147–148.

  29. 29.

    “Draft Convention and Draft Recommendation on Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery … Statements of the Open Door Council and Other Organizations; Elizabeth Abbott to Director International Labour Office, 30/05/1928,” both ILOA D 611/2010/01; emphasis in original.

  30. 30.

    “Honorary Secretary Women’s Section South Hackney Labour Party to Albert Thomas, 29/06/1928,” ILOA D 611/2010/02.

  31. 31.

    Legal equality feminists claimed to have been the major driving force in bringing about this move, and held workers’ representatives responsible for the ensuing lame result.

  32. 32.

    “International Labour Conference. Eleventh Session. Committee on Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery. Minutes of Sixth Sitting, 06/06/1928,” ILOA D 611/900/1.

  33. 33.

    “International Labour Conference. Eleventh Session. Committee on Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery. Minutes of Thirteenth Sitting, 11/06/1928,” ILOA D 611/900/1. The International Labour Office made use of similar arguments on various occasions when defending its course of action.

  34. 34.

    International Labour Office, International Labour Conference, Eleventh Session, Geneva, 1928, Record of Proceedings, vol. 1 (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1928): 441–446.

  35. 35.

    International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship: Report of the Eleventh Congress. Berlin June 17th to 22nd, 1929: 312–313.

  36. 36.

    The Open Door 1, no. 4 (July 1930): 13.

  37. 37.

    “TUC General Council. Meeting of the International Committee of Trade Union Women, 11–12/06/1929, Memorandum Hanna on equal pay for equal work,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/5.

  38. 38.

    “For the Meeting of the International Committee of Trade Union Women 01–02/10/1929, Burniaux, ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’” (incl. both quotes; emphasis added); “TUC General Council. Meeting of the International Committee of Trade Union Women, 11–12/06/1929, Memorandum Hanna on Equal Pay for Equal Work,” both UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/5.

  39. 39.

    “TUC General Council. Meeting of the International Committee of Trade Union Women 01–02/10/1929 (Unofficial) Protocol,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/5.

  40. 40.

    “TUC General Council. International Committee of Trade Union Women, Lausanne 07/06/1931, Payment of Women’s Work [Authored by Julia Varley],” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/6; IFTU, Congress London 1936: The Activities of the International Federation of Trade Unions 1933–1935 (Paris: IFTU, n.d.): 297–300.

  41. 41.

    Congress London 1936: The Activities of the International Federation of Trade Unions 1933–1935: 369.

  42. 42.

    “International Conference of Women Trade Unionists. Holborn Restaurant, London, 07/1936, Resolution,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/7; Congress Brussels 1933, IFTU Activities 1930–1932: 369.

  43. 43.

    Susan Zimmermann, “Equality of Women’s Economic Status? A Major Bone of Contention in the International Gender Politics Emerging During the Interwar Period,” The International History Review 41, no. 1 (2019): 200–227, https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2017.1395761.

  44. 44.

    These are terms Anne Loughlin brought to the international platform of the IFTU Women’s Committee in 1937. “For the Meeting of the International Committee of Trade Union Women 30/07/1937. Campaign for the Practical Realization of Equal Pay for Equal Work. Anne Loughlin,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/7.

  45. 45.

    “For the IFTU Executive Meeting 17–18/12/1936. International Committee of Trade Union Women,” UWMRC-TUC MSS.292/62.14/3.

  46. 46.

    Zimmermann, Frauenpolitik: Ch. 12.

  47. 47.

    Dorothy Sue Cobble, “A Higher ‘Standard of Life’ for the World: U.S. Labor Women’s Reform Internationalism and the Legacies of 1919,” The Journal of American History 100, no. 4 (2014): 1052–1085, has shown how, in the transition from the autonomous international organisation of working women, the International Federation of Working Women, the future members of the IFTU Women’s International were far from united in their strategies. Their ‘choice’ was one between various options that even from their own perspective were far from ideal. See also Zimmermann, Frauenpolitik: Ch. 2.

  48. 48.

    Even resolutions in support of women’s trade union organising were rare in these organisations. In 1929, the International Alliance of Women requested ‘its affiliated societies to aid women in their professional and trade union organization and to work towards constant relations between the societies and the trade unions in order to secure for women an adequate representation in the Executives of mixed unions’. International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship: Report of the Eleventh Congress 1929: 314.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

    Susan Zimmermann

  2. Central European University, Vienna, Austria

    Susan Zimmermann

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  1. Institute for History, Leiden University, Leiden, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

    Stefano Bellucci

  2. Department of History, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Holger Weiss

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Zimmermann, S. (2020). Framing Working Women’s Rights Internationally: Contributions of the IFTU Women’s International. In: Bellucci, S., Weiss, H. (eds) The Internationalisation of the Labour Question. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28235-6_5

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