Dorothy Elliott
Dorothy Elliott | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 19, 1896 |
| Died | November 25, 1980 |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | trade unionist |
Dorothy Elliott born Dorothy Jones (May 19, 1896 – November 25, 1980) was a leading British feminist and trade unionist.
Life
Elliott was born in 1896 in Maidenhead. Her parents were Alice Mary (born Taylor) and William James Elliott and they were both teachers. She attended the County Girls’ school in Maidenhead before she won a scholarship[1] which enabled her to take modern languages at the University of Reading[2] graduating with a third class degree in 1916.[1] Edith Morley gave her career advice - she believed that women needed to compete in a wider range of professions[3][4] and she encouraged her to take work in a Birmingham munitions factory named Kynoch. She was paid less, because she was a woman, but the wages were better than she was used to. She had to work two ten hour shifts every week. One week would be a daytime shift and the following week would be shifts at night with an increased hourly rate.[1]
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She enrolled on a course at the London School of Economics where she was taught by R.H.Tawney. She gained experience on the social science course working with the Mary Macarthur's National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW).[1]
The NFWW employed her to recruit new members at the Woolwich Arsenal. She was paid poor wages for 14 hour days, seven days a week. At the end of the war the arsenal laid off 26,000 employees with just a week's notice. The NFWW successfully argued that they should be paid money for three months.[1]
Elliott died in Pontrilas in 1980.[1] She left an auto-biography that she had written in 1969 titled "Women in Search of Justice".[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Bartley, Paula (2023-06-08), "Elliott [married name Jones], Dorothy Mary (1896–1980), feminist and trade union activist", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112182, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 2023-08-30
- ^ a b "Dorothy Elliott Memoir". collections.londonmet.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Tanya. Outsiders Or Equals?: Women Professors at the University of New Zealand, 1911–1961. Peter Lang, 2009.
- ^ "Women Workers in Seven Professions: A Survey of their Economic Conditions and Prospects". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
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