Women Workers and the International Workingmen’s Association: The Belgian Case

Abstract Several historians have already examined the presence and role of women in the sections of the International Workingmen’s Association (IWMA) in Belgium, as well as in the beginnings of the first trade union organizations. All agree that the subject is extremely complex to address, given the lack of evidence. Nevertheless, women emerge from the shadow and mobilize themselves in the struggle against social injustices. They are seen in Verviers, Liège, and Charleroi. Women’s mobilization is attested during the 1860s and 1870s, but their admission into the IWMA is far from an evidence and sparked off numerous debates within the bodies of workers’ organizations. When they are actively present, women participate in debates concerning, in particular, the economic and social issue of the place of women in the world of work, and more specifically in coal mines. When the movement declines because of tensions and divisions within the International itself and to the repression carried out against the leaders of the IWMA in Belgium, the sections gradually disappear or transform into rationalist societies. The most consistent sources of our knowledge remain the workers’ press (such as Le Mirabeau), but especially the archives of the police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and State Security, which monitored the meetings of the International as well as all trade union movements.