THE plight of the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath will be told in Dorchester tomorrow through rousing traditional songs and moving ballads.
Rouse, Ye Women: Mary Macarthur and The Women Chainmakers comes to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Wednesday, February 20 at 8pm.
After the success of We Are The Lions Mr Manager last year, Townsend Theatre Productions return to reveal the plight of the woman chainmakers The play will be followed by a Q&A with Unison.
In 1910 the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath focussed the world’s attention on the plight of Britain’s low-paid women workers involved in the ‘home-working sweated industries’, hammering out chain-links in sheds in the backyards of their homes with their babies and children for 5 shillings (25p) for a 50-hour week.
Led by the charismatic union organiser and campaigner, Mary Reid Macarthur, hundreds of women laid down their tools to strike for a living wage.
The success of the ten-week strike more than doubled their earnings and helped to make the principle of a national minimum wage a reality.
*Rouse, Ye Women: Mary Macarthur and The Women Chainmakers, Dorchester Corn Exchange, Wednesday, February 20, 8pm. Call Dorchester Arts for tickets.
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