Mary Reid aka Mary Reid MacArthur (1880–1921) was a Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

  suffragette and trades unionist

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...

. She was born in Glasgow and became politicised when she joined the shop assistant's union whilst working in her father's drapers shop. In 1903 she became the general secretary of the Women's Trade Union League

Women's Trade Union League

The Women's Trade Union League was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women formed in 1903 to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions...

 and in 1906 formed the National Federation of Women Workers and assisted in the creation of the National Anti-Sweating League

National Anti-Sweating League

The National Anti-Sweating League is the name adopted by two groups of social reformers in Australia and Britain at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Both campaigned against the poor conditions endured by many workers in so-called Sweatshops and called for a Minimum wage.-Australia:The...

. In 1909 Mary led the women chain makers of Cradley Heath

Cradley Heath

Cradley Heath is a town in the Black Country, located in Sandwell metropolitan borough, England. The name is usually pronounced "Craid-ley", not "Crad-ley", but in the Black Country accent, it may even sound like "Craig-ley Aith"...

 to victory in their fight for a minimum wage and led a strike to force employers to implement the rise.

See also

• History of feminism
  History of feminism
  The history of feminism involves the story of feminist movements and of feminist thinkers. Depending on time, culture and country, feminists around the world have sometimes had different causes and goals...
  
  
• List of suffragists and suffragettes
• Suffragette
  Suffragette
  "Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
  
  
• Women's Social and Political Union
  Women's Social and Political Union
  The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
  
  
• Women's suffrage
  Women's suffrage
  Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
  
  
• Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
  Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
  Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...