The Woman Worker

The Woman Worker: A journal for women trade unionists by Walter Crane, 1906

Produced as a cover design for the monthly newspaper of the National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW), which was formed in 1906 and engaged in strikes for better pay, terms and conditions. 

Unlike other women's unions at the time, which were generally craft based, the NFWW was a general trade union open to all women across a range of industries where women's work predominated, where wages were low and where trade unionism had to that time been unsuccessful. By the end of 1906 the NFWW had seventeen branches and 2,000 members. This grew to an estimated peak of around 40,000 in 1914.

The NFWW was successful in achieving improvements in pay and conditions - notably among the chain makers in Cradley Heath where the employers were forced to implement minimum wages. During the war, there were examples of successful industrial action, including a strike in a factory linked to making uniforms for soldiers; and a sit-in in a munitions factory which was successful within 24 hours. The women made socks to send to the front line while refusing to operate the machinery.

The newspaper, The Woman Worker, set out its objectives: "To teach the need for unity, to help improve working conditions, to present a monthly picture of the many activities of women Trade Unionists, to discuss all questions affecting the interests and welfare of women. Such, in brief, is our aim and purpose." For a time during 1908 it was published weekly and reached a circulation of 20,000.

In 1921 the NFWW amalgamated into the National Union of General Workers as that organisation's women worker's section. 

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Walter Crane (1845 – 1915) was an internationally renowned illustrator and artist in the late 19th Century and early 20th with a clearly recognisable style.

He was an associate of William Morris, and part of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Much of Walter Crane's work was illustrating children’s books but he was an active radical socialist, a member of the Socialist League, and produced many pictures supporting the international socialist and anarchist movements, notably cartoons printed in Justice, Commonweal and The Clarion.