Women co-operators have always engaged in political action, campaigning early in the 19th & 20th centuries for the vote, and for maternity benefits, milk for school-children, divorce law reform, a minimum wage, and initiating the white poppies peace campaign.

One such woman was Margaret Llewelyn Davies, who took the role of General Secretary of the Co-operative Women’s Guild without pay in 1889 and led them for over 30 years, organising campaigns on women’s rights from marriage to the vote to wages.

The women from the Co-operative Women’s Guild knew, before the right to vote was won, that power didn’t just come from the ballot box. Margaret Llewelyn Davies urged women to understand that they had power as the primary consumers and could influence how and where money was spent. She urged women to organise to exert that influence.

Where you shop and what you buy matters, not just in Fairtrade Fortnight but all the time. Margaret would have been proud that the Co-op led the way in stocking and promoting fair-trade goods.
And when the Co-operative Party was created in 1917, just a few short months before women won the vote, Margaret recognised the combined opportunities when she wrote The Vote at Last! More Power to Co-operation.

The Co-operative Party now has women in both Houses of Parliament , in the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and councils across the country. 36% of the Co-operative Party’s MPs are women. I don’t know whether Margaret would have been proud that they are there, or disappointed that there are too few of them. Probably a mixture of both.

The number of women now representing the Co-operative Party at all political levels remains lower than we deserve and suggests that there is still a need for action to ensure that more women are encouraged, supported, selected and elected.

So what are we to do?

A few years ago we re-launched the Co-operative Party Women’s Network to encourage more women co-operators to take a political lead. The network aims to use the skills and support of our politicians at all levels to help and encourage other women to get selected.

It’s a truly co-operative network – no committee, no meetings, just women using their time and talents to help other women.

Here’s what you can do:

1. If you are, or have been, an MP, MSP, AM, councillor or candidate and would like to help the network, here some things you could offer:
   • Write a few lines on what I wish I’d known, the best bit of advice I ever received etc. for us to collate into a set of FAQ. Send your contributions to women@party.coop and let us know if you want to be quoted or anonymous.
   • Offer to check CVs
   • Offer to mentor another co-operator
2. Discuss in your branch what you can do to support more women co-operators to get selected and elected at all levels.
3. Join our team of spotters and supporters.
   You may not want to be an MP or councillor now or ever but you all know other women who would be brilliant, if only someone would say ‘ you could do that and I will support you’. So if you don’t want to do it yourself, resolve today – International Women’s Day – to help another woman and be her champion.
4. Want to be the network’s voluntary co-oordinator? Contact me at k.wilkie@party.coop to discuss.

We won’t all go down in history as Margaret Llewelyn Davies, has but some of us might. And I’d like to think that when our great grand-daughters write about the success of the Co-operative Party in the next century, they will be writing about one of you.