workingclasshistory:

On this day, 12 August 1911, a strike of working women and girls in south London began which rapidly spread into a mass walkout. Amidst a wave of strikes of mostly male transport and dockworkers across Britain, a group of mostly non-union women and girls working in factories walked out and began parading through the streets, calling on other workers to join them. Custard, jam, biscuit, tool and tent-making factories were among those shut down, with around 14,000 women from over 20 different employers on strike within a few days. Employers complained of a “reign of terror” by the workers, and the government responded by ordering troops to be stationed in nearby Southwark Park. The strikers got assistance from the National Federation of Women Workers, who raised money and helped the women formulate concrete demands to make of employers. Companies rapidly began to cave in, abolishing piecework and increasing pay in most of the struck enterprises over the next month. While many male unionists had dismissed women workers, like Labour MP and union leader Will Thorne who claimed that women “do not make good trade unionists”, thousands of women joined unions during the dispute and organised themselves.
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