ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the linkages between work and politics, by arguing that female weavers political involvement fed upon their specific experience of equality in the labour process. It demonstrates their delight in female companionship at work. 'Weaving Fair And Weaving Free - England's Web of Destiny' read the motto on a banner woven and carried by weavers. One way in which female weavers managed to combine full-time factory work with care for household and children consisted in delegating essential tasks for payment of cash. Female weavers infused their memories of Lancashire popular radicalism into strike action. The gender division of labour and power was most blatant in the union hierarchy. Pervasive male dominance was not conducive to female self-determination. This required a more encouraging and anti-hierarchical atmosphere to flourish. Manchester and Salford Women's Trades Council played a key role in encouraging women's self-determination in union affairs.
