| AdminHistory | The National Union of Women Workers (later the National Council of Women) was founded in 1895 with the aim of improving the working and living conditions of women. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury joined the Union in 1896, serving as Honorary Treasurer from 1898 and then as President from 1906-1907. The Union held conferences and debates to confront social issues including housing, education and industrial welfare, concerned particularly with the welfare of women and children. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury was closely involved in co-ordinating the Union's Annual Conference which was held in Birmingham in 1905. Taylor Cadbury's family journal reveals that she was responsible for overseeing a visit by delegates to Bournville during the conference. Bournville had become widely renowned throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a practical experiment in the reform of industrial working and living conditions. The Cadbury factory at Bournville also had a largely female workforce and operated a variety of welfare schemes for employees, including educational initiatives and physical training. The Conference delegates were shown around the facilities provided for the female Cadbury workers and invited to watch them perform a drill displaying their physical training and a swimming display at the baths provided for Cadbury employees. Taylor Cadbury described the visit in her family journal letter dated 31st October 1905, remarking that nearly five hundred people had inspected Bournville village during the conference. |