The gendered geography of the english co-operative movement at the turn of the nineteenth century

Abstract

This article examines the gender politics of the English Cooperative Movement between 1880 and 1920 from the perspective of geographic space. It shows which sections of the country were most likely to exclude women from participating in the government of co-operative enterprises and offers explanations for their exclusion. Using numerical data compiled by the Women's Co-operative Guild to illustrate its points, the article finds that male co-operators in the north-west were more likely than those in the south to deny women access to management committees and national offices. It argues that men in the north-west countered women's demands for public roles with an increased insistence on domesticity for wives, and it attributes the more generous attitudes of male co-operators in the south to their need to attract women to their struggling stores as shoppers. In the north-west, Co-operation was prosperous and well established; men there had no need to curry the favor of working-class housewives to guarantee the success of their establishments