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Advances our understanding of gender, local politics and welfare in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries |
“A fascinating and provocative
book. Steven King has an established reputation in the history
of social welfare; yet, he acknowledges that his discovery in
1994 of the manuscript diary of Mary Haslam led him to less familiar
territory. Born in 1851, Haslam was a philanthropist, suffragist,
and a Poor Law Guardian who lived and worked in Bolton, Lancashire.
As a middle-class woman with a supportive family network, she
was able to participate in local politics and Poor Law administration
at a time when this was the principal form of state welfare.
King, inspired by Haslam’s political life, attempts to
fuse the history of welfare with the history of women’s
activism, aiming to rewrite both in the process … A very
attractive volume, which has something to offer all those interested
in women’s lives in the Victorian and Edwardian periods.” Choice
“In this examination of the life and papers of Mary Haslam,
poor law guardian and leader of the women’s movement in Bolton,
Steven King sets out to elucidate a number of contentious debates
over the influence of women on poor law policy and the development
of feminism at the local level. In this as in so many areas of
British social history, far more is known about national figures
(usually based in London) than about local leaders. What makes
Mary Haslam so valuable is not only her long service as a poor
law guardian in the manufacturing city of Bolton, but the detailed
working diary she kept during those years, which is reproduced
in this volume. We can know precisely what Mary Haslam did and
why she did it, from the time she became a member of the Bolton
Ladies Workhouse Visiting Committee in 1893, through her election
to the Board of Guardians, to the early months of 1905. To illustrate
Haslam’s activities and the principles behind them, King
also makes effective use of her travel diaries and her papers on
the campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain. Hers was not
only an interesting but also a well-documented life.
To a reader interested in the poor law, therefore, the book has
much to offer in the way of details of administration on a local
level … but the principal
function of poor law administration in this study is as a pathway to involvement
in local politics and the feminist movement. To the study of these issues, the
book is certainly a valuable contribution.” Journal
of Social History
Held back by the property qualifications needed to vote and stand as candidates in a range of local elections, female activists and feminists nonetheless formed local pressure groups to make their voices heard. When the property qualification was removed in the 1890s, they staked their claim to a formal engagement in public life, and by the early 20th century there were over 1000 female poor law Guardians.
This book offers a reappraisal of the role of women in the politics and practice of welfare in late Victorian and early Edwardian England. Focusing on the Lancashire mill town of Bolton, it traces the emergence of a core of female social and political activists from the 1860s and analyses their achievements as they rose from the humble origins of a workhouse visiting committee to become pivotal players in the formulation and implementation of local welfare policy after 1894. Using a unique working diary written by the activist and female poor law Guardian Mary Haslam, the book portrays these Bolton women as sophisticated political operators.
The author challenges established notions that women involved in local welfare administration were resented and achieved little, showing their importance in the process by which Bolton Poor Law Union moved from being one of the most backward and obstructive to one of the most progressive and dynamic in the country, adopting best practice from Britain and overseas and revolutionising the material and psychological fabric of the poor law.
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List of Contents to follow |
Publication Details
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ISBN: |
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9781845190873 h/b |
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Page Extent / Format: |
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352 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
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Release Date: |
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December 2005 |
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Illustrated: |
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No |
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Hardback Price: |
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£55.00 / $67.50 |
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