ABSTRACT
As the preceding chapters have shown, during the 1920s the Guild’s cutting edge was blunted as its radical policies were sacrificed to Labour Party orthodoxy. At the same time its democratic organizational form was recast to produce strong centralized control, which in the 1930s served to bolt the organization to an inflexible, and ultimately, for many members, untenable pacifist position. Yet despite the signs of gradual decay, between the wars the Guild remained a leading working-class women’s organization. Its size – membership grew from 50,600 in 905 branches in 1921, to 87,246 in 1,819 branches by 1939 – and its position in the mighty Co-operative movement combined to give it an authoritative voice in a variety of local and national public forums. But what kind of voice? How did the Guild represent working women?
