The Depression

During the Twenties and Thirties all women, especially married women, were heavily downgraded economically, women became cemented into their minor role.

In 1932, at the depth of the deppression, there were mass meetings of women protesting at the absence of jobs, but jobs were not provided; women did not receive unemployment relief and depended largely on charity. Married women were sacked from their jobs.

During the deppression years political discussion and analysis among both men and women was revived; by then the Labour Party, a middle-of-the-road grouping, was well established, and the Communist Party was influential. Professional and wage-earning women were receptive to study and discussion of ideas aimed at a type of society which would abolish unemployment and economic exploitation.

In October 1934 the first National Conference of Working Women was called to found a Working Women's Movement, though many thousands of women were unemployed. In November 1935 the movement produced a printed periodical. "The Working Women", a Communist Party paper with Elsie Freeman (now Locke) the editor. The articles were nonparty and as well as international affairs (such as Italian aggression and Fascism) they concentrated on the women's movement housing, the removal of starvation, food depots, free milk for the unemployed and unemployment relief for women.

The last issue was printed in November 1936. The Communist Party felt that a women's paper should have a wider basis and be controlled by a broader group of women. Again with the consistent help of Elsie Freeman, "Women Today" became until 1939, an independant journal 'for women writers and thinkers. It covered the Women's Movement, equal pay, medical aid to the Spanish Republicans and the boycotting of Japan. With the coming of World War II and the sweeping up of women into war activities, publication ceased.