War: The Standing Joint Committee

Abstract

The single greatest cause of change in the organization and activities of the Labour Party and women’s groups was war. The experience, during the First World War, of organizing a Party consisting of affiliated organizations, which were not always of the same mind, was an important factor in the adoption of a new Labour Party constitution. This provided for individual Party membership and made the constituency the heart of Party organization but entailed the disbanding of the Women’s Labour League. Labour women’s contribution to the war effort was a factor in the creation of the Standing Joint Committee of Working Women’s Organizations (SJC) that, to an extent, replaced the League. In the Second World War, the constituency base, which had served the Party well, was disrupted by bombing, evacuation and conscription into the services or industry. Greater workplace organization favoured the Communist Party. During both wars, women’s participation in the labour force greatly increased. In the Second World War older and married women formed a greater part of the female workforce and women worked for the first time alongside men in heavy industries. As a result, women’s union membership started to grow; industrial women’s representation in the Labour movement was thus strengthened.