A talk given to Friends of the Women’s Library, LSE, 20 November 2019
The files of the Women’s Publicity Planning Association (WPPA) include material on the Women for Westminster campaign. Initiated in January 1942 by the Association on the suggestion of Dr Edith (later Baroness) Summerskill (1901-1980), W4W encouraged women’s involvement in politics at both national and local level; offering practical guidance as well as information. In 1944 Honor, then still pursuing a political career, was invited in May to speak in support of the Equal Citizenship bill and, in December, to appear on a W4W Brains Trust surveying the three main parties’ programmes.
I came across the references in 2016 while researching Irene Ward’s contribution to the Equal Pay Campaign. Briefly marvelling again at the interconnectivity between the lives of people in my various research areas I couldn’t know just how serendipitous the discovery would prove two years later.