Margaret Llewelyn Davies

Margaret Llewelyn Davies

Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861–1944) was the general secretary of the Co-operative Women's Guild from 1899 until 1921.^[1][2] During her tenure, the Guild became far more politically active than it previously had been.^[2]

Davies' election was a "turning point" in the organization's history; her tenure ushered in an era of unprecedented growth and success for the guild.^[3] Davies was considered to be such a significant figure in the guild that Catherine Webb considered Davies' retirement such a significant loss for the Guild that she began writing The Woman with the Basket, her history of the Guild to that time.^[1] She was a prominent and dedicated pacifist of her era.^[4]

Davies' had an unusual upbringing; her parents were involved in radical intellectual movements when she was a child.^[5] Her father was a fellow of Trinity College and an outspoken foe of poverty and inequality, active in Christian Socialist groups, and also involved in the early cooperative movement.^[5] Many of her extended family were also politically active, especially around the issue of women's suffrage.^[5] Her brother Arthur Llewelyn Davies was a barrister. Through her brother, she is the aunt of Llewelyn Davies boys who were the inspirarion for J. M. Barrie's work.

References

1. Blaszak, Barbara J. (2000). Matriarchs of the movement : female leadership and gender politics within the English cooperative movement (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313309953.
2. Stuckey, Karyn. "Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861–1944) and the Women’s Co-operative Guild". National Co-operative Archive. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
3. Gaffin, Jean; Thoms, David (1993). Caring & sharing : the centenary history of the Co-operative Women's Guild (2nd ed.). Manchester: Holyoake Books. ISBN 978-0851952017.
5. Scott, Gillian (1998). Feminism and the politics of working women : the Women's Co-operative Guild, 1880s to the Second World War. London: UCL Press. ISBN 1857287983.

• Stott, Mary (2006). "Davies, Margaret Caroline Llewelyn (1861–1944)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37681. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)