Emma Paterson
| Emma Paterson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Emma Anne Smith 5 April 1848 London, England |
| Died | 1 December 1886 (aged 38) |
| Known for | English feminist and trade union activist |
Emma Anne Paterson (née Smith; 1848 – 1886) was an English feminist and trade unionist.
Emma Anne Smith was born in London on 5 April 1848, the daughter of Henry Smith (died 1864), headmaster of a school in St George Hanover Square, and his wife Emma Dockerill.
In 1867 she became assistant secretary of the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, gaining trade union experience. In February 1872 she started working for the National Society for Women's Suffrage as their secretary. She resigned the post in 1873, when she married Thomas Paterson (1835-1882), a Scottish cabinet-maker and wood-carver active in the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, who had organized the Workmen's International Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall in 1870. The couple spent a long honeymoon in the United States.
In 1874 Paterson founded Women's Protective and Provident League, aimed at creating trade unions in all trades branded by working women. The scheme was suggested by the Female Umbrella Makers' Union of New York. Paterson was honorary secretary and organizer of the Women's League until her death. Members of the Women's League were largely upper-middle-class men and women interested in social reform, who wanted to educate women in trade unionism and fund the establishment of trade unions. With this group she helped organize a strike in Dewsbury of weavers.
At Paterson's suggestion, a similar organization was established in Bristol, called the National Union of Working Women. Paterson put emphasis on the importance of women in the labour movement and her League was initially aimed at establishing women-only unions. This was in part due to the resistance of some of the more traditional trade unions, some of whom believed that women should not work.
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