Women’s Guild to vote on closing down after 132 years

The Co-operative Women’s Guild is to vote on proposals to dissolve the guild at a special general meeting (SGM) next month. Its National Executive Committee (NEC) has called...

The Co-operative Women’s Guild is to vote on proposals to dissolve the guild at a special general meeting (SGM) next month.

Its National Executive Committee (NEC) has called the SGM in Coventry on 6 October to discuss dissolution of the organisation that serves branches in England and Wales. The grouping has no formal links with the Scottish Co-operative Women’s Guild.

General secretary of the guild, Colette Harber, said: “The NEC is deeply upset that it has felt this is necessary. Branches, including the national individual members’ branch, will debate and vote at the meeting on whether to support the NEC’s recommendation to dissolve the Co-operative Women’s Guild as a national organisation. The decision of each branch’s vote will be made by its loyal guildswomen, prior to attending the SGM.”

The decision on the future of the guild’s 2016 Congress will depend on discussions with guildswomen following the outcome of the vote. The general secretary said the NEC’s recommendation was entirely due to dwindling membership.

The guild, now in its 132nd year, introduced the white poppy and successfully campaigned for women’s suffrage, maternity benefits and equal pay for equal working within the co-operative movement.

In 1939, guild’s membership peaked at 87,246 women, with 1,819 branches. Ms Harber said: “While in recent years the NEC has worked extremely hard to stem the decline in membership and breathe new life into the guild, it now has fewer than 800 members and just 38 branches, many with single numbers of guildswomen.”

Membership is strongest and branches most active in areas served by independent retail co-operative societies and many members are well above retirement age.

“The guild is no longer viable as a nationwide organisation,” Mrs Harber said. “Many branches are withering on the vine. The NEC is recommending that the guild be dissolved as a national organisation while it still has a high reputation and a proud history.

“The guild is very grateful to the Co-operative Group and its predecessors for its sustained funding of the guild’s national structure; additionally, both the Group and independent societies must be thanked for their support, both financial and in kind, given so generously over many years.

“The guild particularly wishes to thank the Group for maintaining its support even during its recent turmoil.”

The guild added it maintains adequate reserves and that its decision is not connected with the financial troubles of the Group.

In June, the general secretary and other representatives of co-operative auxiliaries met Richard Pennycook, Co-operative Group chief executive, and Russell Gill, head of group membership, to discuss the financing of each auxiliary. Prior to this meeting, the NEC had determined that, given the guild’s impending SGM, the guild would not request continued funding from the Group.

Instead, following discussion and dependent on the outcome of the SGM, the Group said it would give all necessary assistance to the guild in the closure and consequent archiving of its records, banners, chains and other artefacts.

A spokesperson for the Group said: “The Group has supported the Co-operative Women’s Guild, at both a national and local level for many years, and recognises the important contribution the guild has played over its history in advancing the role of women in society. The Group remains supportive of the guild but believes as a member-owned organisation it is up to the guild’s members to determine its future.”

On the winding up or dissolution of the guild, its property or funds must be transferred to one or more organisations with a similar purpose. If no such organisations exist, a charitable organisation or organisations must be established with functions similar to the guild. The members will determine how the funds will be allocated at a forthcoming meeting, should they choose to dissolve.

Many of the branches say they will continue whether the guild is dissolved or not. The Hull Central branch, which has 12 members aged between 60 and 84, will continue to meet weekly, holding debates and discussions, taking part in political campaigns and working for local charities.

Lyn Longbottom, president of the guild 2011-12 and chair of the Hull branch, said: “We want to continue meeting and carry on the ethics, but as a branch we understand that we’re no longer sustainable without help. It’s better for us to go out with a bang than fade away. I would hate for us to fade away. We’re thinking of calling ourselves the Women’s Tuesday Club.”

“The world has changed,” said Ms Longbottom. “What the guild did was give us a grounding to give women a voice. We’ve continued that there, but women now have the vote and good jobs. Today’s life is so busy that everything is done online.”

“The world has changed,” said Ms Longbottom. “What the guild did was give us a grounding to give women a voice. We’ve continued that there, but women now have the vote and good jobs. Today’s life is so busy that everything is done online.”

She said that, during its heyday, the guild catered to women in need of a social and political life, but now women are busier, spend more time online and tend to be more mobile, often moving to follow work. “There were over 70,000 members in the guild’s heyday,” she said. “We had 14 guilds in Hull alone. But there was nothing else.

“Some of the women that came to us had no voice in that they just sat there. By the time they’d finished they they knew that their voice was just as important as anybody else there.

“I’d never have imagined I’d have been national president of this organisation, that’s the confidence they gave me. They altered my life. People say I’m confident, but I’m not. The guild gave me that.”

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