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.

In the 1930s Emmy Freundlich came under suspicion from the Austrian Nazi regime and was arrested in a major purge of socialist leaders in February 1934. DCX/7/1 is a file containing news of events in Austria in 1934. On 19 February 1934 Dr Deutsch was reported in an interview for the Manchester Guardian as saying `the hangman is busy'. Dr Bauer said `my wife has had to flee and I don't know where she is'. Emmy Freundlich, however, was to be found in jail and the file also contains letters about her arrest and petitions sent requesting her release. One from the Irish Women's Cooperative Guild reads `these organizations [i.e. those in which Emmy was involved] are neutral as regards religion and politics, we are convinced in all her actions she has been out for progress and peace'.

Emmy Freundlich was released in April 1934 and a photograph taken of her in England with the committee of the English Women's Cooperative Guild soon after is at DCW/6/34. She returned to Vienna and avoided further arrest until 1939 but then had to flee and she returned to England. After the war she went to America and died there rather suddenly in 1948 and papers concerning her death are at DCX/2-3.

The International Women's Cooperative Guild after the war concerned itself particularly with reconstruction and only lasted as an autonomous society until 1963 when the death of its president prompted its return to its roots, as a committee of the International Cooperative Alliance.

From the guide to the Records of the International Women's Cooperative Guild, 1921-1961, (Hull University, Brynmor Jones Library)