Professor Mary Davis FRSA
Position
Professor of Labour History
Deputy-Director Working Lives Resarch Institute
Head of Centre for Trade Union Studies
Course Director, MA Labour & Trade Union Studies
Qualifications
BA(Hons.)
Background/ Career/ Teaching
My main teaching is in the field of Labour History.
As an educator, I have been involved from the start of my career, to secure high quality educational provision for trade unionists. This has entailed the development of innovative and germane course content and teaching methods. In addition the Centre for Trade Union Studies aims to provide a ladder of opportunity for trade unionists to proceed from pre-degree courses to postgraduate study at masters and doctoral level. We now have an MA Labour and Trade Union Studies and have signed educational ‘partnerships’ with the Communication Workers’ Union & the Transport & General Workers’ Union to begin a new degree in Labour & Trade Union Studies.
I supervise PhD students within the sphere of my research interests.
I have also been involved in devising, writing and teaching courses for individual unions, especially for women members. Thus at a national level, I developed women’s courses in addition to courses for many unions on Equal Pay for work of Equal Value, Equal Opportunities, Job Evaluation (and much else) at regional, national and workplace level. I continue to develop and teach courses for individual unions, in particular for the Fire Brigades Union for which I have developed and led courses on equality, ‘the politics of change’ and have written and taught new courses on labour and women’s history for various unions
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Research interests and expertise
My research is centred on the historical development of the British Labour Movement at an institutional and ideological level. Within this my chief area of concern is the problematic exclusion/inclusion of black and women workers in the labour movement and the extent to which the ideologies sustaining oppression have permeated the socialist/labourist tradition.
Thus I attempt not just to rescue those groups hitherto 'hidden from history' as separate subjects, but to integrate our growing knowledge of the dispossessed and powerless into an overall analysis of the non-linear development of the labour movement historically and currently. Most histories of the movement are based on the presumption that the working class was white and male. My research attempts to rectify this gender and colour blind approach.
My current research is on the development of the TUC’s colonial policy and its attitude to colonial independence and black immigration will throw new light on an under-researched subject from an historical perspective. This is related to current work on trade union responses to racism and xenophobia today.
I am frequently invited to broadcast on radio, television, and give specialist interviews for newspapers and magazines. In addition my research is disseminated through shorter, non-academic articles and through invited public lectures, conferences and seminars. My work on women’s history and in particular on Sylvia Pankhurst has resulted in frequent invitations to speak at public meetings and on radio. The campaign (of which I was one of the founders) to erect a memorial statue of Sylvia Pankhurst on College Green, Westminster, has attracted extensive sponsorship and aroused widespread interest.
I am actively involved in the Labour movement. I am an executive committee member of my own union and an elected member of the TUC Women’s Committee. I was a founder and initiator of the newly established Charter for Women campaign.
Contact details
m.davis@londonmet.ac.uk
Professor Mary Davis,
Head of Centre for Trade Union Studies
London Metropolitan University,
62-66 Highbury Grove,
London N5 2AD
0207 7133 5206
Deputy Director Working Lives Research Institute
Working Lives Research Institute
London Metropolitan University
31 Jewry Street
London EC3N 2EY
Tel. 020 7320 1313
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Publications
Books and chapters in books
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DAVIS M (2009) ed. Class and Gender in British Labour History (Merlin Press, (forthcoming)
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DAVIS M (2008) Comrade or Brother?: The History of the British Labour Movement 1789-1951 (Pluto Press) 2nd & revised edition (forthcoming)
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DAVIS M (2005) Book Chapter: Oppression in Marx and Other four-letter
words: eds. G.Blakely & V.Bryson (Pluto Press)
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DAVIS M (2001) Book Chapter: The Labour Party, the TUC & the Empire:
Background, Policy and Practice in J.Jemnitz (ed), The Forward March
of the Left and the Problems of its Progress 1945-8, Institute of History,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, (Magyar Lajos Alapitvany), Budapest
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DAVIS M (2000) Fashioning a New World: A History of the Woodcraft
Folk (Holyoake Press)
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DAVIS M (1999) Sylvia Pankhurst: A Life in Radical Politics (Pluto
Press)
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DAVIS M ed. (1998) with Marj Mayo Marxism and Struggle: Towards the
Millennium (Praxis Press) ISBN: 1-899155-03-1
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DAVIS M (1998) Book Chapter Introduction: Whither the British Left in
Marxism and Struggle: Towards the Millennium (op. cit.)
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DAVIS M (1998) Book Chapter: Marxism and Oppression in Marxism and
Struggle: Towards the Millennium (op.cit.)
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DAVIS M (1997) Book Chapter: Women in the British Labour Movement: Women
in Society1943-46 in Democratic and Social Progress 1942-45 ed.
J.Jemnitz et al, Budapest ISBN 963 04 8338 6
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DAVIS M (1993) Comrade or Brother?: The History of the British Labour
Movement 1789-1951 (Pluto Press) ISBN 0 7453 07612
Articles
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DAVIS M (2007) Working Against racism: how European Unions can combat racism at work Transfer 3/2007
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DAVIS M (2007) Review of P.Blackledge ‘Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History Contemporary Politics, Dec2007, Vol. 13 Issue 4
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DAVIS M (2006)The Great Divide New Statesman supplement on the General Strike (11th Sept 2006)
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DAVIS M & FOSTER J (Dec.2005) Commentary on Peripheral Vision:
Communist Historiography in Britain (forthcoming in American Communist
History)
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DAVIS M review of A. Murray ‘The Awkward Squad’ in Contemporary Politics, Volume 10, Number 1, March 2004
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DAVIS M (2000) Labour Policy on Race & Empire; Origins & Development,
Contemporary Politics, Autumn, vol.6 no.4
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DAVIS M (1995) Towards a Theory of Marxism & Oppression, Contemporary
Politics no.2 Summer 1995, ISSN 1356-9775
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DAVIS M (1993) Equal Pay for Women & Marxist Political Economy, Questions
of Ideology no.2, Nov.1993,ISSN 0969-6512)
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Other publications
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DAVIS M, MCKENZIE R, SULLIVAN W (2006) Working Against Racism (TUC/WLRI)
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DAVIS M (2005) Imperialism & Religious Fundamentalism Communist
Review no. 45
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DAVIS M (2005) A Historic Third Term? Communist Review no.44
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DAVIS M (2004) What’s wrong with diversity politics? Communist
Review no 42
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DAVIS M (2002) The Gender Pay Gap Sisters (Journal of the
National Assembly of Women)
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DAVIS M (2001) The Gender Pay Gap Communist Review no.35
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DAVIS M (2001) Sylvia Pankhurst: the case for a statue Tribune
(9/3)
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DAVIS M (2001) TGWU’s educational provision for women members Together (TGWU women’s journal)
Grants and consultancies
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Awaiting decision: Black Trade Unionists’ Oral
History project (HLF)
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2003-4 review of Fire Brigades’ Union educational
provision
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2002 Racial & Ethnic Minorities, Immigration
and the Role of Trade Unions (RITU), (with CNRS Paris & Nice, Universite
Libre de Bruxelles, University Ca’Foscari Venice, International Centre
for Minority Ethnic Studies, Bulgaria) EU Framework 5
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2001 DAVIS M., COLGAN,F., & JEFFERYS, S.: The
Minimum Wage in North London: Awareness & impact of the National Minimum
Wage in an area of deprivation and high ethnicity, Low Pay Commission
report
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1994 DAVIS, M. The Training Needs of NATFHE members in
Higher Education consultancy and report NATFHE
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1991 DAVIS, M. Strategic Review of National Union of
Civil & Public Servants (NUCPS) Education Policy, Content and Delivery:
consultancy and report NUCPS
Invited & other academic conference
papers
2008
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Conference paper: Labour, race and empire: The years of influence, 1945-51 at British Labour & Imperialism Conference, UCLAN (June)
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Guest speaker 1 in 5 : a one-day national conference on women’s participation in the political process 5 June 2008, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London
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Guest speaker Women Chainmakers’ Festival (September)
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Guest speaker: ‘How the Vote was Won’ Essex Labour History Conference (October)
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Paper on ‘The Erosion of the Welfare State & the feminisation of poverty’: METU workshop, N.Cyprus (May 1/2)
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Guest speaker on History of Shop Stewards’ Movement. SERTUC Union Reps conference
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Guest speaker and tutor FBU Women’s school
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Guest speaker Sylvia Pankhurst: Class, Race and Gender University of Hertford
2007
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Invited paper ‘ Contested Models of Labour Internationalism’ Beyond the Western Canon? How to Talk About Global Relations in the (Post-)Colonial Context, Wadham College, Oxford 4/5th July 2007
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Guest Speaker on ‘Women’s Trade Union History’ UNISON Women’s conference
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Guest Speaker on ‘Women’s Trade Union History’ NUJ Women’s conference
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Guest Speaker on History of TU Education CWU Learning reps Conference
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Invited speaker Burston School Strike Rally (SERTUC)
2006
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Invited Paper Women Trade Unionists and the Suffrage Campaign: Gender Politics Vs Class Politics?' Women’s History Conference; Collective Action: Women's Work and Trade Unionism, Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, West-Midlands
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Attacks on the Social Welfare State invited paper, SOCIAL RIGHTS IN EUROPE - A provocation for neo-liberalism Conference (European Association of lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights), Berlin
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Guest speaker CWU Women’s conference, Birmingham
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presentation of Working Against racism, British TU Guide, TUC/WTRI conference
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Guest speaker, FBU Women’s school, Wortley Hall 7-9 February
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Guest speaker, AUT annual women’s meeting 23rd March
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lecture on ‘Karl Marx in Britain’ to delegation from Shanghai Administrative Institute 20th April
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organiser of ‘Class & Gender in British Labour history’ conference, Women’s Library & paper on the making of the English Working Class revisited 4/5th July
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invited paper The Other Half of the English Working Class ‘How class Works conference’ State University of New York
2005
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Women Work & Trade Unions in 19th & 20th Centuries Forging Links: Women and Trade Unionism, The Women Chainmakers Festival, Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, West-Midlands – Keynote speaker
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Presentation of European TU Guide; working against racism RITU conference, Paris
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invited lecture ‘Labour, Race & Empire’ Ca Foscari university, Venice
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Charter for Women Femmes Indersyndicales conference, Paris
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Charting the History of the Woodcraft Folk,
Youth & Community Work Conference, Durham University (Feb) –keynote
speaker
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The Labour Movement & the British Empire
National Institute for Working Life, Sweden (Jan)
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Labour History & the Other Half of the Working
Class National Institute for Working Life, Sweden (Jan)
2004
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The changing nature of Nationalism and the effect
of a Unipolar World Order on regional conflict: Israel and Palestine:
Politics and History, Coventry Peace Lecture
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The case against the merging of the equality
commissions GLA Capital Women Conference
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Sylvia Pankhurst’s socialist feminism,
London Socialist Historians Group
2003
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1st Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Lecture, Wortley Hall (guest speaker)
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The Camera at Work: Polly Toynbee in conversation
with Mary Davis, Tate Modern
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Professorial Inaugural Lecture The Making of
the Working Class Revisited: History Theory & Practice
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The British Labour Movement and British Imperialism,
Working-Class studies: intersections with race, gender, and sexuality, the
Sixth Biennial Conference of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown
State University (May)
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Sylvia Pankhurst & Socialist Politics,
Sources of Radicalism conference, Manchester, 10/5/03
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What has happened to HE in the UK?, The
Degradation of Higher Education in the UK, University College London
, 25 January
2002
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Oppression & Exploitation Class &
Other Classic Concepts of the Left conference, Huddersfield University
16/17 November
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Sylvia Pankhurst, the Suffrage & Socialism,
Birmingham Trades Council
2001
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Women in British Labour History, NATFHE Women’s
conference
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Sylvia Pankhurst and the Labour Movement MSF Women’s School 14/1
1999
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Suffragettes and Socialists: The Women’s
Movement and the Labour Movement 1900-1918, International conference:
Women and Political Action, Middlesex University
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Labour, Race and Empire 1945-8 – The British
Experience – International conference, The Forward March of
the Left and the Problems of its Progress 1945-8, Institute of History,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (invited paper)
1998
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Imperialism and Social Democracy in Britain.
Conference Patrons or Comrades: the British Labour Movement & the
Colonies, Soc. For the Study of Labour History/UNL (invited paper)
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Mobilising the Many. Conference on Radical
Trade Unionism in Britain & North America, Keele University (invited
paper)
1997
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Women & the Labour Movement in World War
Two, International Conference Democratic & Social Progress 1942-45,
Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (invited paper)
1991
Professional Activities
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2002-3 advisor to TUC Library Labour History Digitisation Project
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Elected member TUC Women’s Committee
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National Executive Council, University & College Union & Chair of National Women’s Committee
Journal editorship (Peer reviewed)
Other journals
Television & Radio (interviews
and broadcasts)
2008
2006
2004
2003
2001
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Radio 4 Weekend Woman’s Hour: Interview on
the Sylvia Pankhurst statue campaign (December)
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BBC Radio 4 Today- interview on Gender Pay Gap (2/5/01)
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BBC Radio 4 Great Lives - Sylvia Pankhurst - with
Barbara Castle (21/9/01)
2000
1999
1997
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British Satellite TV: interview on women in British
politics after the General Election (2/6)
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BBC 1 TV The Midnight Hour. Panel discussion on
women’s pay (July)
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BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour: Interview on the
‘Sweated Trades’ and the 1906 exhibition
Press interviews/articles
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2000 THES interview on the suffrage campaign (Feb.)
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2001 New Statesman interview on the Gender Pay Gap (26/2)
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1997 Times specialist interview on the historical development
of paid holidays and shorter working time for British workers.
Since 1974 I have contributed feature articles on Women, Women’s History,
Labour History, Equal Pay, Gender Pay Gap for Morning Star
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