National Union of Women Teachers

Founded in 1904 as the Equal Pay League, part of the National Union of Teachers, in 1906 this United Kingdom organisation was renamed the National Federation of Women Teachers. In 1920, it broke away to form an independent trade union, the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT). It was a feminist organisation and maintained close links with other groups and individuals in the Feminist movement. Its main aim was to obtain equal pay for women but also interested itself in the wide range of issues affecting women teachers including the marriage bar, maternity rights and family allowances. It was also concerned with education in its widest sense and took an interest in many issues such as class sizes, corporal punishment, the school leaving age, teacher training, and wider social and political debates such as capital punishment, the minimum wage and health policy. In 1961, when equal pay had been achieved, the Union wound up.

Primary sources

The archive of the National Union of Women Teachers is held in the Institute of Education Archives, and a partial list can be found on the online catalogue.

Published histories

• Kean, Hilda, Deeds Not Words: The lives of suffragette teachers, Pluto, (London, 1989).
• Phipps, Emily, A History of the National Union of Women Teachers, National Union of Women Teachers, (London, 1928).
• Pierotti, A.M The Story of the National Union of Women’s Teachers, (London, 1963).

See also

• Equal pay for women