Women, Welfare and Local Politics, 1880–1920: 'We Might Be Trusted' (review)

Women, Welfare and Local Politics is a fascinating and provocative book. Steven King has an established reputation in the history of social welfare; yet, he acknowledges that his discovery in 1994 of the manuscript diary of Mary Haslam led him to less familiar territory. Born in 1851, Haslam was a philanthropist, suffragist, and a Poor Law Guardian who lived and worked in Bolton, Lancashire. As a middle-class woman with a supportive family network, she was able to participate in local politics and Poor Law administration at a time when this was the principal form of state welfare. King, inspired by Haslam's political life, attempts to fuse the history of welfare with the history of women's activism, aiming to rewrite both in the process.

In part 1, "Rethinking Women, Welfare and Local Politics," King argues that historians have neglected the later years of the Poor Law and that women's agency has thereby been undervalued. In fact, King finds fault with virtually every historian who has focused on the Poor Law in the post-1880 period and also with those whose work examines women's contribution to local politics. He reserves his greatest criticism for those who regard this period of Poor Law history as one of stagnation and those who minimise women's contribution to the politics of welfare. While King writes with confidence and conviction, he fails to seriously consider these issues. Laying waste to the historiography of the last forty years, King sets up his own analysis based largely on the work of one woman in one town. Local studies can provide a useful counterweight to national studies and to those that focus on the contribution of more eminent women; there is, however, a corresponding danger of overstating the significance of such case studies.

Indeed, the book's title suggests a more extensive account of women's contribution to welfare and local politics than what actually appears. At the same time, the study of Bolton and the work of the women who served as elected representatives on the Board of Guardians is very interesting, especially in the links it makes between women's philanthropic and political activity. King's discussion of whether this form of female activism was inspired by feminist ideals makes a real contribution to our understanding of women's political engagement. Setting aside his earlier bombastic tone, he provides a nuanced account of the tensions evident in local politics and of the struggle to give expression to different ideals, whether religious, feminist, or party political. Haslam was a Liberal and a Unitarian, and unlike many of the other women Guardians elected in the 1880s and 1890s, appears to have been a member of the "damn the rates" faction of the Guardians. Women Guardians clearly influenced the administration of poor relief in Bolton, but it is not always possible to assess the specific contributions these women made without an examination of their voting behaviour. King has a tendency to suggest that increased expenditure on poor relief can be explained in terms of the influence of women Guardians, but the case is not altogether convincing, and he is on much safer ground when he discusses the specific concerns of women Guardians, such as the management of staff and the care of children and the sick. King's account of the Poor Law and role of women is generally very positive. He states, for instance, that by the 1880s, Lancashire Poor Law Unions had "ceased to be instruments of oppression and rate-saving, and become instead flexible policy bodies attuned to the needs of the local poor" (40). His evaluation leads one to wonder, however, why there was such a vigorous campaign by the turn of the century to abolish the Poor Law or to find alternative ways of providing state welfare.

Part 2 of King's volume consists of Haslam's personal writings: a brief autobiography, a...