Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was an English Labour politician and feminist, the first woman Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom and one of the first three female Labour MPs. Like many figures of the Labour movement, Bondfield was a non-conformist - particularly, a member of the Congregational church.
Bondfield was born in Chard, Somerset, the eleventh child of Anne Taylor and William Bondfield, a textiles worker with...
more
Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was an English Labour politician and feminist, the first woman Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom and one of the first three female Labour MPs. Like many figures of the Labour movement, Bondfield was a non-conformist - particularly, a member of the Congregational church.
Bondfield was born in Chard, Somerset, the eleventh child of Anne Taylor and William Bondfield, a textiles worker with left-wing views. She began an apprenticeship at the age of 14 in a draper's shop in Brighton, where a customer, Louisa Martindale, befriended her; Martindale took her under her wing, helped educate her, and lent her books on left-wing politics. In 1894 she moved to London and was elected to the Shop Assistants' Union district council.
In 1896 the Women's Industrial Council commissioned her to investigate the pay and conditions of shop workers, and she published a report on this in 1898. In 1898 she was elected assistant secretary of the Shop...
less
