The women in the room: Labour's forgotten history

In February 1900 a group of men representing trade unionists, socialists, Fabians and Marxists gathered in London to make another attempt at establishing an organisation capable of getting working-class men elected to Parliament.

The body they set up was the Labour Representation Committee; six years later when 29 of its candidates were elected to the House of Commons it changed its name to the Labour Party.

No women took part in that first meeting, but several watched from the public gallery.

Throughout Labour's history, even in its earliest years, women were present in the room, but they were not always recorded or remembered.

They came from many different backgrounds and they worked for the causes they believed in as organisers, campaigners, negotiators, polemicists, public speakers and leaders.