People's Suffrage Federation
The People's Suffrage Federation (PSF) was created by a merger of the Co-operative Women's Guild and the Women's Labour League in 1909 - and led by Margaret Llewelyn Davies, who was the former Co-operative Women's Guild general secretary. The group believed that the women's suffrage movement was being damaged by class divisions, such as those that split the Women Social & Political Union and the Women's Freedom League.
Members included Margaret Bondfield, Katharine Glasier, Mary Gawthorpe, Mary Macarthur, Margaret MacDonald, Kathlyn Oliver, Marion Phillips, Margaret McMillan, Rachel McMillan and Ada Salter.
Primary Sources
(1) Pamela M. Graves, Labour Women (1994)
Before the war, Labour had been the only party to give official support to the suffrage campaign through its 1913 alliance with the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). After 1918, the party withdrew from the feminist alliance and began a sustained campaign to drive a wedge between its women members and the "non-party" feminist groups that replaced suffrage organizations. In the eyes of party leaders, these groups were serious competitors for working-class women's votes and Labour women's loyalty.
