Following the passing of the Representation of the People Act in 1918, which enfranchised some women over 30, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the umbrella organisation for the law-abiding ‘suffragists’, evolved into the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC). Like the NUWSS, the re-branded NUSEC drew together and represented smaller women’s groups in their shared goal of achieving equal rights with men. These smaller groups, usually local but sometimes institutional, were commonly called Women Citizens’ Associations (WCAs) or Societies for Equal Citizenship (SECs).
Millicent Fawcett, the President of the NUWSS, retired following the 1918 Act. The transformation to NUSEC prompted the beginning of a decade-long presidency by Eleanor Rathbone. The first issue that NUSEC faced was the decline of support for feminist causes after the acquisition of the vote. As the 1918 NUSEC report noted, many suffrage societies ‘not unnaturally decided to disband’ after 1918. [1] Nevertheless, the NUSEC was committed to achieving full legislative equality with men. They argued NUWSS was not formed to enfranchise women, but to establish equal citizenship between women and men. As their annual report for 1918 stated:
‘It remains true, however, that the cause for which the NUWSS was created has not yet been won, that there is real and imminent danger of many of those careers, professions and trades which have been opened to women being once again closed to them, and of the victory won by voteless women under the leadership of Josephine Butler being rendered null and void.’ [2]
Their main object was ‘To obtain all such reforms as are necessary to secure a real equality of liberties, status and opportunities between men and women.’ This was broken down into an immediate programme, which in 1920 was a six-point programme as follows:
- The enfranchisement of women on the same terms as men.
- An Equal Moral Standard between men and women.
- Women in Parliament.
- Equal Pay for Equal Work and Equality in Industry and the Professions as between men and women.
- (a) State Pensions for Widows with Dependent Children and (b) Equal Guardianship of Children.
- The League of Nations and the practical application of the principle of Equal Opportunity for men and women within it. [3]
NUSEC was a leading hub of interwar feminism, particularly in the decade between the passing of the Representation of the People Act and the Equal Franchise Act. In their annual report for the year 1928-29, NUSEC reflected on ‘the close of a momentous ten years in the history of the women’s movement’. Whilst acknowledging that there were countless minor reforms in the period, the report highlighted five areas for which NUSEC claimed to have ‘had special responsibility’. These reforms were: equality in divorce rights; equal guardianship of children; improved rights to maintenance and separation orders; and widows’ pensions. Fifthly, of course, was suffrage on the same terms as men, which was finally won with the 1928 Equal Franchise Act. [4]
Rathbone retired from her presidency of NUSEC after the 1928 Act. She was succeeded by Margery Corbett Ashby, a fellow former suffragist and liberal politician. In 1932, NUSEC was reorganised, and split into two separate organisations. The first of these was the National Union of Guilds for Citizenship, ‘To encourage the education of women to enable them as citizens to make their best contribution towards the common good.’ Its purpose was to establish women’s townswomen’s guilds to encourage women to educate themselves as citizens, on both social and political issues. The second, the National Council for Equal Citizenship, continued the main objective of NUSEC: ‘To obtain all such reforms as are necessary or may help to secure a real equality of liberties, status and opportunities between men and women.’ [5]
By Katie Carpenter
Katie Carpenter is a Citizens project intern researching material from the Women’s Library collection at the LSE Library. Katie is also a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London.
[1] National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, Annual Report and Balance Sheet (1918), p. 25, LSE Library, Women’s Library Collection, 6B/106/2/NUSEC/C1.
[2] Ibid.
[3] NUSEC, Annual Report for the Year 1920 (1921), p. 2, LSE, WL, 6B/106/2/NUSEC/C3.
[4] NUSEC, Annual Report 1928-1929 (1929), p. 3, LSE Library, Women’s Library Collection 6B/106/2/NUSEC/C11.
[5] NUSEC, Annual Report 1931-32 (1932), p.1, LSE Library, Women’s Library Collection, 6B/106/2/NUSEC/C14.
