Founded in 1904 as the Equal Pay League, part of the National Union of Teachers

National Union of Teachers

The National Union of Teachers is a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is a member of the Trades Union Congress...

, in 1906 this United Kingdom organisation was re-named the National Federation of Women Teachers. In 1920, it broke away to form an independent trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

, 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

Feminist movement

The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...

. Its main aim was to obtain equal pay for women

Equal pay for women

Equal pay for women is an issue regarding pay inequality between men and women. It is often introduced into domestic politics in many first world countries as an economic problem that needs governmental intervention via regulation...

 but also interested itself in the wide range of issues affecting women teachers including the marriage bar, maternity rights

Parental leave

Parental leave is an employee benefit that provides paid or unpaid time off work to care for a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare. Often, the term parental leave includes maternity, paternity, and adoption leave...

 and family allowances. It was also concerned with education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 in its widest sense and took an interest in many issues such as class sizes, corporal punishment

Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...

, the school leaving age

Raising of school leaving age

The raising of school leaving age is an act brought into force when the legal age a child is allowed to leave compulsory education increases...

, teacher training, and wider social and political debates such as capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

, the minimum wage

Minimum wage

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...

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).