Margaret Grace Bondfield (March 17, 1873, Mangold, Somerset - June 16, 1953, Sunderstead, Surrey) - British political activist, member of the Labor Party, Minister for the Second Government of Ramsay MacDonald, the first woman minister in the history of Great Britain.
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She was the eleventh child in the family of William and Ann Taylor Bondfilov. She received only a small education, at the age of 14 she started working in the Draper store. In 1894 she moved to London and was elected to the district council of the store workers union.
In 1896, on the instructions of the Women's Industrial Council, she conducted a study on wages and working conditions in stores. A report on the results of this study was published in 1898. In the same year she was elected secretary of the trade union of shop workers, in 1908 - secretary of the Women's League of Labor. In 1923 she became chairman of the General Council of the Congress of Trade Unions (becoming the first woman in this post).
After two unsuccessful attempts, Bonfield was elected to the House of Commons in 1923 from Northampton, but lost her seat there already in 1924. She returned to parliament in 1926, winning by-election from Wallsend. In 1929-1931 she was the Minister of Labor. The 1931 election lost and thereby lost its seat in parliament. Also defeated in the 1935 election.
In 1939-1945 she was president of the Women's Public Good Group. She died in 1953.
Notes
Links
- Encyclopedia Britannica article