Glasgow Women's Housing Association


Glasgow Women's Housing Association was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in mid-1914 by the Independent Labour Party Housing Committee launched by Andrew McBride in 1913 and the Women's Labour League in reaction to the increasing rent prices and overcrowding exacerbated by the advent of the First World War. The Women's Labour League which included Jessie Ferguson and Mrs Nixon among its members promoted the formation of housing associations in each ward of the city affiliated to the GWHA. GWHA campaigned for subsidised housing and criticised profiteering by landlords and the lack of municipal housing provision due to speculative urban development.. The GWHA were instrumental in the organisation of the Glasgow Rent Strike of 1915. As a result of the rent strikes in Glasgow and elsewhere in Britain, the Rent Act of 1915 was passed.
Mary Burns Laird was its first President and chaired the first meeting on 16 February 1915 in Govan's Morris Hall. Other key figures in establishing GWHA include Mary Barbour, Agnes Dollan, Helen Crawfurd, and Jessie Ferguson. Members of the GWHA were responsible for "violent attacks" against House Factors who were evicting families, and successfully gained support from factory workers to aid Mary Barbour and the GWHA in demanding a return of money from the Factor.
The GWHA were actively involved in protests during the Red Clydeside and thus contributed to the passing of the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1919 which mandated local governments to build housing for citizens and allocated the funds to do so. The GWHA had 3,000 members by the end of 1915. The members used banners during their protests, an example of which read:

Our Husbands Sons and Brothers are Fighting the Prussians of Germany.
We are fighting the Prussians of Partick.
Only Alternative: Municipal Housing.
Banner at the Great March in St. Enoch's Square, Glasgow 7th Oct, 1915.