Women in Hackney’s Local Politics 1907-2007 Exhibition
This exhibition, launched in June 2007, is on Hackney women in local government and is to celebrate the centenary of the passing of the 1907 “Qualification of Women” Act.
The act entitled women (ratepayers) to be elected to borough and county councils and was partly brought about by the lobbying of an influential group of women networking as the ‘Women’s Local Government Society’.
The society operated in some form from the late 1880s until First World War. There are plans to revive the Women’s Local Government Society this year to celebrate the success of women councillors since 1907.
Leaflet produced by the Municipal Reform Party in 1919 to encourage women to vote in the Municipal elections (Ref.: M 4312.6) Women have played an influential role in Hackney’s local politics since they were first able to vote and to stand in elections. Mrs Florence May Ashdown was the first woman councillor in Hackney, elected in June 1918. Even before this, in 1910, Nettie Adler, was elected to the London County Council. Hackney Archives has a wealth of material relating to local politics, including the records of the local branches of some political parties, election ephemera which includes leaflets produced by the various candidates, family papers of local councillors and press reports on elections. The exhibition includes brief biographies of individual women who served as councillors (and even mayors) of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington over the years, as well as those who represented Hackney on the London County Council. It also highlights the different issues that were used to appeal to women voters and the ways in which different political parties campaigned for the women’s vote. The exhibition also looks at the changing political landscape and how this affected the ways in which women were mobilised both as voters and as candidates. |
 | Nettie AdlerNettie Adler was the daughter of the Chief Rabbi and stood as the Progressive Party candidate for the Central Hackney Division of the London County Council in 1910. According to the election leaflet, she had been “interested for many years in social questions affecting the welfare of women and children and especially in matters relating to the industrial status of women workers” (1910 leaflet ). |
Election leaflet produced by Miss Nettie Adler to fight the London County Council elections in 1910 (Ref.: M4312.5) Before standing, she had served as Manager of Provided Schools in East London for nearly 11 years and for 9 years as a Manager of Special Schools. She had also served as a member of the Education Committee of the London County Council for more than four years. She represented Central Hackney on the London County Council for over 15 years. In 1920 she was appointed Justice of the Peace and in 1921 selected by the Lord Chancellor to serve on the rota of the Shoreditch Juvenile Court. |
Page updated: 17 Jan 2008