ABSTRACT
As the chainmakers’ struggle to uphold the minimum wage got under way in the fall of 1910, the reporter for Votes for Women found herself in a quandary, stating of her experience:
I came away from Cradley Heath distressed in mind by the terrible scenes of poverty and privation I had witnessed, and yet, at the same time, inexpressibly cheered by the knowledge that even these downtrodden women were proving strong enough to protect their own interests, and to take a way of escape from their miserable lot when it was pointed out to them. 1
