Sloane, whose books include The Women in the Room: Labour\u2019s Forgotten History (2018), continues to shine a light on the overlooked contributions of female politicians in her latest biography. Margaret Bondfield (1873-1953) led an extraordinary life. At age 16, after working in a London drapery store, she went undercover to report on the appalling conditions for women and domestic servants. She was intimidated and fired, and even though she was only 5 feet tall (eventually having trouble seeing over the podium in the House of Commons), she began working for her trade union. Bondfield was a founding member of what became the Labour Party. The First World War brought opportunities for women, but after the war, women returned to unemployment. Sloane writes of Bondfield\u2019s relationship with Maud Ward. She was \u201can elusive figure,\u201d Sloane says of Bondfield\u2019s friend, but the author writes touchingly of the two women going on a walking holiday together. \u201cThey walked miles every day over every kind of terrain, enjoying stormy weather as much as the hot sunshine. Bondfield, who had never really had the time for proper holidays before, was converted.\u201d Bondfield was eventually elected as a Member of Parliament for Wallsend. She traveled to Moscow and met Lenin: \u201cHe suggests by his manner a more or less confidential exchange of opinions. But when the interview is over, it is found that he has told you far less than you have told him.\u201d In 1929, she was made Minister of Labour. The government fell, and she lost her seat. It is to Sloane\u2019s credit that she brings attention to a largely forgotten and important figure. Nonetheless, much of the narrative is devoted to tedious legislative arguments written in lackluster prose. Bondfield was a plucky woman who rose from West Country poverty to the British Cabinet. Sloane doesn\u2019t help us understand enough why so many not only voted for her, but also loved her.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sloane, whose books include The Women in the Room: Labour\u2019s Forgotten History (2018), continues to shine a light on the overlooked contributions of female politicians in her latest biography. Margaret Bondfield (1873-1953) led an extraordinary life. At age 16, after working in a London drapery store, she went undercover to report on the appalling conditions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}