Co-operative Women's Guild

The Co-operative Women's Guild is an auxiliary organisation of the co-operative movement in the United Kingdom which promotes women in co-operative structures and provides social and other services to its members.

The Guild was founded in Oxford, England, in 1883 inspired by a Mrs Acland. She edited the 'Women's Pages' of the Co-operative News which proved very popular and led to the foundation of the Women's League for the Spread of Co-operation with local branches. It was intended to be an organisation dedicated to spreading the co-operative movement, but soon expanded beyond the retail-based focus of the movement.

In 1884 the League changed its name to the Women's Co-operative Guild and later to the Co-operative Women's Guild. By 1910 it had 32,000 members. Maternity benefits were included in the 1911 National Insurance Act because of the Guild's pressure. The Guild became more politically active, as well as expanding its work beyond the British Isles; their objectives included the establishment of minimum wages and maternity benefits, and in April 1914 they were involved in an International Women's Congress at the Hague which passed a resolution totally opposing war:

this Conference is of opinion that the terrible method of war should never again be used to settle disputes between nations, and urge that a partnership of nations, with peace as its object, should be established and enforced by the people's will.

After World War I the Guild became more involved in peace activism, concentrating especially on the social and political conditions that encouraged or gave rise to war, as well as opposition to the arms trade. In 1933 they introduced the White Poppy as a pacifist alternative to the British Legion's annual red poppy appeal. At this time membership of the Guild was at its peak, with 1,500 branches and 72,000 members.

The Guild still continues today with several local branches, although it does not have the visibility within the co-operative movement it once did.

External links

• Official website
• Centenary history
• CWG Archive at the National Co-operative Archive
• CWG Archive at the Bishopsgate Institute
• CWG Archive at LSE Archives

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