Glasgow Women's Housing Association

Glasgow Women's Housing Association (GWHA) was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in mid-1914 by the Independent Labour Party Housing Committee launched by Andrew McBride in 1913^[1] and the Women's Labour League^[2] in reaction to the increasing rent prices and overcrowding exacerbated by the advent of the First World War.

Glasgow Women's Housing Association

Abbreviation	GWHA
Predecessor	Independent Labour Party Housing Committee, Women's Labour League
Formation	1914
Founded at	Glasgow, Scotland
Type	Non-governmental organisation
Purpose	campaigned for subsidised housing ; criticised profiteering by landlords; challenged the lack of municipal housing due to speculative urban development
Methods	Rent Strikes; marches and speeches, protest leaflets and latterly engagement with the legislative process
Key people	Mary Burns Laird, Mary Barbour, Agnes Dollan, Helen Crawfurd, Jessie Ferguson

The Women's Labour League which included Jessie Ferguson and Mrs Nixon among its members promoted the formation of housing associations in each ward of the city affiliated to the GWHA.^[1] GWHA was non-political^[1] but campaigned for subsidised housing and criticised profiteering by landlords and the lack of municipal housing provision due to speculative urban development. The GWHA were instrumental in the organisation of the Glasgow Rent Strike of 1915. and were described as a 'major pre-war organisational effort in support of the strikes'.^[3] As a result of the rent strikes the Rent Act of 1915 was passed.^[4]

Eventually GWHA assisted the improvement of the post war Housing and Town Planning Act 1919 for municipal social housing.^[5]

Housing issues and rent strike

The majority of housing in Glasgow was in private hands, and in tenements: buildings with multiple occupants, a common stair or 'close' and toilet, with no internal sanitary facilities.^[6] The industrial growth in shipbuilding and men called to the war effort, as well as a rapid population growth had so increased demands on housing that landlords could raise rents on their tenements' remaining residents.^[7] Women who were often the main occupiers in practice, were faced with a rent increase of up to 25% and would be forcibly evicted by bailiffs if they failed to pay.^[1] As a result of this rent increase, there was a popular backlash against the landlords and a rent strike was initiated. The GWHA led the Glasgow Rent Strike of 1915 and at its peak the rent strike involved around 20,000 people, with the Glasgow women's influence extending to other working-class communities in the UK.^[8]

As a result of the rent strikes in Glasgow and elsewhere in Britain, the Rent Act of 1915 was passed.^[4]

Mary Burns Laird was GWHA first President and chaired the first meeting on 16 February 1915^[1] in Govan's Morris Hall. Other key figures in establishing GWHA include Mary Barbour, Agnes Dollan who was the association's Treasurer, Helen Crawfurd, and Jessie Ferguson. Members of the GWHA were responsible for "violent attacks"^[3] against House Factors (agents of landlords who collected rent) who were evicting families, and successfully gained support from factory workers to aid Mary Barbour and the GWHA in demanding a return of money from the Factor.

The GWHA had 3,000 members by the end of 1915. The members used banners during their protests, an example of which read:

Our Husbands Sons and Brothers are Fighting the Prussians of Germany.

We are fighting the Prussians of Partick.

Only Alternative: Municipal Housing.

_{Banner at the Great March in St. Enoch's Square, Glasgow 7th Oct, 1915.}^[3]

The GWHA were actively involved in protests during the Red Clydeside. On 17 November 1915, a large protest march of women, and male shipbuilders and engineers went through Glasgow to the Glasgow Sherriff Court, ^[9] which was where landlords were taking individual tenants to court to obtain eviction orders.^[6] In May 1917, the GWHA leaders spoke at a rally on Glasgow Green to an audience of over 70,000.^[10][11] One of the speakers, GWHA Treasurer Agnes Dollan^[12] was given a short prison sentence in 1917 for her actions in the rent strike. ^[13] The GWHA methods were copied in cities all over the UK, for example Dundee, Aberdeen, Leeds, Bradford, Edmonton, Barrow, Workington, Coventry and Birmingham.^{[6] [5]}

Changes to town planning law

GWHA were eventually formally engaged directly with changing legislation through membership of the Secretary of State for Scotland's Scottish Women's Committee on House Planning during 1918.^[14] Thus GWHA contributed to the passing of the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1919, which mandated local governments to build housing for citizens and allocated the funds to do so.^[5]

References

1. Melling, Joseph (1983). Rent Strikes: People's Struggle for Housing in West Scotland 1890 - 1916. Glasgow: Polygon Books, Edinburgh. p. 40. ISBN 0-904919-72-2.
2. Smyth, James, J. (1980). Women in Struggle: A Study of the Political Activity of Working - Class Women in Glasgow during the First World War (M.A. Dissertation). Glasgow: University of Glasgow. p. 10.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. Castells, Manuel (1983). The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements. Berkeley & Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 32. ISBN 0-520-04756-7.
4. Wright, Valerie (2008). "Women's Organisations and Feminism in Interwar Scotland. PhD Thesis" (PDF). University of Glasgow.
5. Women and the making of built space in England, 1870-1950. Darling, Elizabeth., Whitworth, Lesley. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7546-5185-7. OCLC 72698696.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
6. "Class War on the Homes Front: The Glasgow Rent Strikes of 1915". Leftcom. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
7. Meek, Jeff (May 2016). "Boarding and lodging practices in early twentieth-century Scotland". Continuity and Change. 31 (1): 79–100. doi:10.1017/S0268416016000084. ISSN 0268-4160. S2CID 148118333.
8. Craig, Maggie. (2011). When the Clyde ran red. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84596-735-2. OCLC 773281743.
9. "Life of Mary Barbour celebrated". BBC News. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
10. Out of bounds : women in Scottish society 1800-1945. Breitenbach, Esther., Gordon, Eleanor. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1992. ISBN 0-7486-0372-7. OCLC 27348173.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
11. Duncan, Robert, 1948- (2015). Objectors & resisters : opposition to conscription and war in Scotland 1914-18. [London]. ISBN 978-0-9930965-1-8. OCLC 956984646.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
12. The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Ewan, Elizabeth., Innes, Sue., Reynolds, Sian. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7486-2660-1. OCLC 367680960.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
13. Corr, Helen (2004). "Dollan [née Moir], Agnes Johnston, Lady Dollan (1887–1966), suffragette and socialist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/54395. Retrieved 10 September 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
14. "Planning of houses for the working class". The Scotsman. 27 June 1918.