Winifred Baddeley

Winifred Lucy Baddeley[1] (2 December 1904[2] – 20 July 1972) was a British trade unionist.

Born in Sale, then in Cheshire,[3] Baddeley worked for many years as an electrical coil winder at the Associated Electrical Industries works in Old Trafford.[4] She joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) and gradually rose through the ranks, becoming a shop steward in 1941, then branch chair, chair of the women's works committee, and district representative.[3]

Baddeley was regarded as being on the right wing of the trade union movement,[4] although she campaigned strongly for equal pay for women, and argued that women's marginality in trade unions was partly due to the attitudes of many male trade unionists.[5]

In 1963, Baddeley attended the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for this first time, and was immediately elected to the General Council of the TUC; she was the first women who was not a full-time official to serve on the council.[4] During this period, she chaired the TUC's Women's Advisory Committee. She retired in 1968.[3]

In her spare time, Baddeley served as a magistrate, and on her Local Employment Committee. She married in 1963 and, unusually for the time, retained her maiden name.[3]