With a biography set for publication, we look back at Hilda Smith, a leading light of the Guild.

The dissolution of the Co-operative Women’s Guild was met with great sadness across much of the movement.

As a progressive working class women’s organisation, it fought for rights in areas such as maternity benefits, infant welfare and putting an end to female genital mutilation.

It was a powerful force for good – but this emerged from the coming together of individual women who had true drive and determination to make female lives better through the peace movement, collaboration and the application of co-operative values and principles.

Under Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861-1944), Guild secretary for 32 years from 1889, it became a highly effective campaigning organisation. She believed that, as co-ops were largely built around the idea of self- help, women should be encouraged to recognise their power to change things that blighted their own lives.

This included the issue of female suffrage. As activists, she and the Guild campaigned peacefully for women to receive the vote, and from 1904 the Guild joined in the non-militant campaign (the suffragists).

The pioneering Guild is known for establishing the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – but one of its lesser-known achievements is its highly influential work with the National Joint Committee (NJC) of Working Women’s Organisations.

The NJC was set up in 1916 “to represent the women of the political, industrial and co-operative movements … with the aim of securing women’s representation on local, national and international bodies” – in particular, those bodies that dealt with matters of special interest to women.