Editing Beatrice Webb (section)

==A pioneer in social research and policymaking==
One of Beatrice's older sisters, [[Catherine Courtney, Baroness Courtney of Penwith|Catherine]], became a well-known social worker. After Catherine married [[Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith|Leonard Courtney]], Beatrice took over her work as a voluntary rent-collector in the [[Model Dwellings Company|model dwellings]] at [[Katharine Buildings]], [[Wapping]], operated by the [[East End Dwellings Company]].<ref>''The Diaries of Beatrice Webb'' (2000), p. 53.</ref>

[[File:Beatrice and Sidney Webb, c1895 (9259293969).jpg|thumb|Beatrice and [[Sidney Webb]] working together in 1895]]
The young Beatrice also assisted her cousin by marriage [[Charles Booth (philanthropist)|Charles Booth]] in his pioneering survey of the Victorian slums of London, work which eventually became the massive 17-volume ''[[Life and Labour of the People in London|Life and Labour of the People of London]]'' (1902–1903).

These experiences stimulated a critical attitude to current ideas of philanthropy.

In 1890, Beatrice Potter was introduced to [[Sidney Webb]], whose help she sought with her research. They married in 1892, and until her death 51 years later shared political and professional activities. When her father died in January 1892, leaving Potter an endowment of £1,000 a year, she had a private income for life with which to support herself and the research projects she pursued.

The Webbs became active members of the [[Fabian Society]]. With the Fabians' support, Beatrice Webb co-authored books and pamphlets on socialism and the [[co-operative movement]] including ''The History of Trade Unionism'' (1894) and ''Industrial Democracy'' (1897). In 1895, the Fabians used part of an unexpected legacy of £10,000 from Henry Hutchinson, a solicitor from [[Derby]], to create the [[London School of Economics and Political Science]].<ref>''The Diaries of Beatrice Webb'' (2000), 21 September 1894, p. 186.</ref><ref>[[Kitty Muggeridge]] and [[Ruth Adam]], ''Beatrice Webb: A Life, 1858–1943'', 1967, London: Secker & Warburg, pp. 151–156.</ref> Beatrice Webb also became one of the founding members of the Fabian Women's Group in 1908. As a member of the Fabian Women's group, she helped push for equal pay and supported the role of women in local government.<ref>Caine, Barbara. "Beatrice Webb and the 'Woman Question.'” History Workshop, no. 14, 1982, pp. 36. {{JSTOR|4288429}}. Retrieved 28 February 2024.</ref>

===Contributions to the theory of the co-operative movement===
Beatrice Webb made a number of important contributions to the political and [[Co-operative economics|economic]] theory of the co-operative movement.

In her 1891 book ''The Cooperative Movement in Great Britain'', based on her experiences in Lancashire, she distinguished between "co-operative federalism" and "co-operative individualism". She identified herself as a co-operative federalist, a school of thought which advocates [[consumer co-operative]] societies. She argued that consumers' co-operatives should be set up as [[Co-operative wholesale society|co-operative wholesale societies]] (by forming co-operatives in which all members are co-operatives, the best historical example being the English [[Co-operative Group|Co-operative Wholesale Society]]) and that these [[federal co-operatives]] should then acquire farms or factories.

Webb dismissed the idea of [[Worker cooperative|worker co-operatives]] where the people who did the work and benefited from it had some control over how it was organised, arguing that – at the time she was writing – such ventures had proved largely unsuccessful, at least in ushering in her form of socialism led by volunteer committees of people like herself.<ref>Potter, Beatrice, ''The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain'', London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1891.</ref> Examples of successful worker cooperatives did of course exist, then as now.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} In some professions they were the norm. However, Webb's final book, ''The Truth About Soviet Russia'' (1942), celebrated [[central planning]]. {{Citation needed|date=January 2013}}

She also is credited with introducing the concept of “[[collective bargaining]].”<ref name="fmcs.gov"/>“[[Collective bargaining]]” defines the process in which unions discuss with their employers the conditions, hours, pay, and safety of their work environment.<ref>American Federation of Labor. "Collective Bargaining." America's Unions | AFL-CIO, 
aflcio.org/what-unions-do/empower-workers/collective-bargaining. Accessed 28 February 2024.
</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Susan Hayter|title=The Role of Collective Bargaining in the Global Economy: Negotiating for Social Justice|website=[[International Labour Organization]]|date=30 May 2011|url=https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/article/wcms_173298.pdf|accessdate=28 February 2024|archive-date=13 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240313115112/https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/article/wcms_173298.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

===1909 Minority report to the Royal Commission===
{{main|Minority report (Poor Law)}}
For four years Beatrice Webb was a member of the [[Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09]]. The [[Unionist Government 1895–1905|Conservative government]] of [[Arthur Balfour|A. J. Balfour]] established the commission, which issued its final report to the [[Liberal Government 1905–1915|Liberal government]] of [[H. H. Asquith]].<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2008_05_wed.shtml ''Woman's Hour'' discussion on 1909 Minority Report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080630052433/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2008_05_wed.shtml |date=30 June 2008 }}, BBC Radio 4, 2008.</ref><ref>Wallis, Ed (editor). ''From the Workhouse to Welfare'' Fabian Society and Webb Memorial Trust, 2009.</ref> Beatrice was the lead author of the dissenting [[Minority report (Poor Law)|minority report]]. This sketched the outlines of a [[Welfare State]] which would:

<blockquote>...secure a national minimum of civilised life ... open to all alike, of both sexes and all classes, by which we meant sufficient nourishment and training when young, a living wage when able-bodied, treatment when sick, and modest but secure livelihood when disabled or aged.</blockquote>

With the minority report, she advocated for more aid towards those who were disabled and supported the use of outside relief for infants in [[workhouses]], which often were in poor condition and unsafe. The ''Minority Report'' emphasized proper medical care and child-well as provisions needed to the ''[[Poor Law]]''.<ref>Platt, Lucinda. "Beatrice Webb's Minority Report." LSE History, 4 Oct. 2023, 
blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2018/02/23/beatrice-webb-william-beveridge-poverty-and-the-minority-rep
ort-on-the-poor-law/. Accessed 28 February 2024.</ref> 
[[William Beveridge]], future author of the 1942 [[Beveridge Report]] that introduced the welfare state in the United Kingdom, worked as a researcher for the Webbs on the Minority Report.<ref>[[Jose Harris|Harris, Jose]], "The Webbs and Beveridge", in ''From Workhouse to Welfare'' (Fabian Society, 2009).</ref> He was later appointed director (1919–1937) of the London School of Economics.

===Rivalries on the Left, 1901–1922===
[[File:Webb beatrice (middle age).jpg|thumb|Chalk drawing of Beatrice Webb by [[Jessie Holliday|Jessie Holiday]], circa 1909]]

The influence of the Webbs on the Fabian Society and its policies was attacked by [[H. G. Wells]]. For a time, he joined the Society but was critical of its cautious approach: "They permeate English society with their reputed Socialism about as much as a mouse may be said to permeate a cat."<ref>Quoted in Muggeridge and Adam, p. 168.</ref> For her part, Beatrice voiced disapproval of Wells' "sordid intrigue" with the feminist [[Amber Reeves]], the daughter of a veteran Fabian [[Maud Pember Reeves]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Beatrice | last=Webb | editor-first=Jeanne | editor-last=MacKenzie | editor-link=Jeanne MacKenzie | title=The Diary of Beatrice Webb: "The power to alter things," 1905-1924 | year=1984 | page=120 }}</ref> Wells responded by lampooning the couple in his 1911 novel ''[[The New Machiavelli]]'' as Altiora and Oscar Bailey, a pair of short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators.

Other rivals from the [[left-wing|left]] of the Fabian Society at that time were the [[Guild Socialists]] led by the historian and economist [[G.D.H. Cole]]. Cole and his wife Margaret would later run the Fabian Research Bureau.

In 1913, the Webbs and [[Henry Devenish Harben]], husband of suffragist and fellow Fabian, [[Agnes Harben]], co-founded the ''[[New Statesman]]'', a political weekly edited by [[Clifford Sharp]] with contributions from many philosophers, economists, and politicians of the day, including [[George Bernard Shaw]] and [[John Maynard Keynes]].

The Webbs became members of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in late 1914. At the end of World War I, Beatrice collaborated with her husband Sidney in his writings and policy statements such as ''Labour and the New Social Order'' (1918). She also campaigned for his successful election in 1922 to the parliamentary seat of coastal [[Seaham (UK Parliament constituency)|Seaham]], a mine-working community in [[County Durham]].