Mary Sutherland (political administrator)
Mary Elizabeth Sutherland (30 November 1895 in Burnhead, Banchory-Ternan, Aberdeenshire – 19 October 1972 in East Kilbride) was a Scottish feminist and labour activist.
Life[]
Born in Aberdeenshire, Sutherland joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) while she was at secondary school. Her mother died when she was sixteen, and she brought up her siblings; however, she won a scholarship to the University of Aberdeen and graduated in history in 1917. She taught at Aberdeen Girls' High School and became active in the labour movement, campaigning for a minimum wage.[1]
Sutherland took a succession of political administration posts, including being an organiser for the Scottish Farm Servants' Union from 1920-1922, a sub-editor on Forward, the Glasgow ILP newspaper, and then from 1924, being Scottish Women's Organiser for the Labour Party.
When the ILP left the Labour Party in 1931, Sutherland remained a member, and in 1932 she was promoted to Chief Women's Officer for the party and moved to London. From 1947-1952, she was the British representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and she was also secretary of the Standing Joint Committee of Industrial Women's Organisations.[1][2]
She was friends with the Nigerian activist Folayegbe Akintunde-Ighodalo.[3] She retired from her Labour Party post in 1960, but remained active in other roles, including secretary of the Houseworker Trust.[1]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Cheryl Law, Women: A Modern Political Dictionary, page 143, ISBN 978-1860645020
- ^ Elizabeth Ewan et al, The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, page 349, ISBN 0748617132
- ^ Marc Matera (21 March 2015). Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century. University of California Press. pp. 117–18. ISBN 978-0-520-95990-3.
External links[]
- 1895 births
- 1972 deaths
- Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
- Members of the Fabian Society
- Labour Party (UK) officials
- People from Aberdeenshire
- Socialist feminists