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Mary MacArthur

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"MARY MACARTHUR (1880-1921), British labour organizer, was horn at Ayr Aug. 13 1880, her father being the proprietor of a drapery establishment. She was educated in Glasgow, and afterwards studied for some time in Germany. About 1901 she became interested in the Shop Assistants' Union, and her interest in this union led to her work for the improvement of women's labour conditions. She was active in furthering various strikes of women against insufficient wages, and her work for the sweated women chain-makers of Cradley Heath made her name very well known. To her the foundation of the Women's Trade Union League was chiefly due, and she was a prominent member of the National Anti-Sweating League. One of her main objects was the establishment of a minimum wage for women, and it was largely through her efforts that this principle was carried out in the Trade Boards Act of 1909. She herself became a member of the chain-making trade board. She was secretary to the Women's Trade Union League and to the National Federation of Women Workers, and was a member of the National Insurance advisory committee, while on the formation of the Central Committee on Women's Employment (1914) she became its hon. secretary. Miss Macarthur married in 19x1 William C. Anderson (d. 1919), chairman of the executive committee of the Labour party, who was from 1914 to 1918 member for the Attercliffe division of Sheffield. She died at Golders Green Jan. 1 1921.