International Women's Cooperative Guild

The International Guild of Cooperative Women was formed in 1921 at the International Cooperative Congress held in Basle in that year. The first president was Emmy Freundlich of the Austrian Women's Guild and the first secretary was Honora Enfield of England. It survived as an independent organization until 1963 when it became a committee of the International Cooperative Alliance. Most of the papers of the Guild are in Vienna where Emmy Freundlich was based.

The early identification of the Guild was very much tied up with Emmy Freundlich. Born in 1878 in Bohemia to rich parents, Emmy Freundlich eloped to marry a socialist, Leo Freundlich, against the wishes of her guardians (her father had died young). In 1912 she became involved with women cooperators in Austria and her first contact with the English Women's Cooperative Guild seems to have come in 1913. She became very friendly with Margaret Llewelyn Davies and Honora Enfield and, in 1921 when she became the first president of the International Women's Cooperative Guild, Honora Enfield became the first secretary. Their partnership resulted in a very active period through the 1920s and, like the English Women's Cooperative Guild, this was one of the International guild's most productive and successful decades.

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