Mary Sutherland

Mary Elizabeth Sutherland (born November 30, 1895 in Burnhead, Banchory-Ternan near Aberdeen , † October 19, 1972 in East Kilbride ) was a Scottish politician and suffragette .

Youth and education

Mary Sutherland was born in Aberdeenshire to Alexander and Jessie Sutherland. During her secondary school years, she joined the Independent Labor Party (ILP). When her mother died, she was 16 years old and subsequently had to take care of her siblings and the household in addition to school. She received a scholarship to the University of Aberdeen , where she completed her studies in history in 1917 .

Professional and political work

She taught at Aberdeen Girls' High School and became active in the labor movement by joining a campaign for a minimum wage .

Sutherland subsequently took on various political offices, including as managing director for the Scottish farm workers' union from 1920 to 1922, as deputy editor of the party organ of the ILP Forward and then from 1924 as head of the women's organization of the Scottish Labor Party .

When the ILP left the Labor Party in 1931, Sutherland remained a member. In 1932 she became the head of the party's women's organization for the whole of the United Kingdom and went to London . She supported the Indian independence movement . From 1934 to 1938, with the support of the International Council of Social Democratic Women, she campaigned for the release of the dissident Eva Broido imprisoned in the USSR . The failure of this campaign deepened Sutherland's rejection of communism and any left-wing extremism.

From 1946 to 1952 she was the British delegate and founding member of the UN Commission on Women's Rights , where she was involved in the formulation of the UN Charter of Human Rights . She was also the managing director of the umbrella organization for women's organizations in the trade unions.

She was friends with the activist of the West African Students' Union and later Nigerian State Secretary Folayegbe Akintunde-Ighodalo and supported her in dealing with the decolonization of her country. In 1960 she resigned from her party offices, but remained active in other areas, for example as chairwoman of the domestic workers' union.

She died of a stroke on October 19, 1972 at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39184?mediaType=Article
↑ ^a ^b ^c Cheryl Law, Women: A Modern Political Dictionary , p. 143, ISBN 978-1-86064-502-0 , ISBN 1-86064-502-X
↑ Elizabeth Ewan et al., The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women , p. 349, ISBN 0-7486-1713-2
^ Marc Matera: Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century . University of California Press, March 21, 2015, ISBN 978-0-520-95990-3 , pp. 117-18.

personal data
SURNAME	Sutherland, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Sutherland, Mary Elizabeth (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Scottish-British suffragette and trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH	November 30, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Burnhead, Banchory-Ternan, Aberdeenshire
DATE OF DEATH	October 19, 1972
Place of death	East Kilbride

[Oxforddnb-1] ttp://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39184?mediaType=Article

[women-2] Cheryl Law, Women: A Modern Political Dictionary , p. 143, ISBN 978-1-86064-502-0 , ISBN 1-86064-502-X

[3] Elizabeth Ewan et al., The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women , p. 349, ISBN 0-7486-1713-2

[Matera2015-4] Marc Matera: Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century . University of California Press, March 21, 2015, ISBN 978-0-520-95990-3 , pp. 117-18.