BEATRICE BEATRICE

WEBBWEBB

Beatrice Potter Webb

Self-taught economist

Socialist and reformer

Co-founder of London School of Economics and Political Science

Beatrice Webb born: January 2, 1858 in Standish House in Gloucestershire, England-- Richard Potter and Laurencina Heyworth (8th of 10 children)

Died 30th April, 1943

Father: Wealthy railway entrepreneur

Her Education: PhilosophyScienceMathematics

Richard Potter

Early YearsEarly political inspirations: Father, father’s acquaintances, and cousins

Mother’s friend, Herbert Spencer

Early involvement in social work was assisting her cousin, Charles Booth in carrying out a survey of the Victorian slums of London.

Beatrice learned first hand about the life of the poor.

Charles Booth’s Research

Contemporary social problems

Recognized limitations of philanthropy and conditional charity in addressing poverty

Devised, organized, and funded comprehensive and scientific social surveys of London life

Supported old age pensions to alleviate destitution in old age (major cause of poverty)

Beatrice’s Views on Poverty

Skeptical of charitable work by rich women

Wanted to understand causes of poverty

Met Sidney Webb in her research on cooperative societies in Britain’s industrial towns

Early Years1892: Beatrice and Sidney Webb married

After her father’s death, Beatrice inherited income of £1000 a year (appox. $122,000 today)

Sidney Webb gave up civil servant post

He and Beatrice --Full time research and politics

Views on Poverty

Published The Cooperative Movement in Great Britain in 1891, introducing concepts:

Cooperative Federalism

Cooperative individualism

Co-operative FederalismFavored consumer co-operative societies

Proponents included JTW Mitchell, Charles Gide, Paul Lambart, and Beatrice Webb

Consumers form co-operative societies

Co-operative societies purchase farms or factories

Profits paid as dividends to member co-operators, rather than to their workers

Co-operative Individualism

Basis for limiting and decentralizing the powers of the StateTo secure and preserve justice

Favors workers' co-operative wholesale societies

Profits paid as dividends to their workers

Proponents in Britain: Christian Socialists and later writers like Joseph Reeves, as a path to State Socialism.

Helping the PoorBefore she could address social problems

Must learn more about what she wanted to correct

Not the individual, which was entirely at fault but the structure

Inquired about labor unions

And economic conditions of working class to help more efficiently

Beatrice and SidneyMarriage seemed completely egalitarian

Expressed unhappiness when she wrote,

"I never write, except in my diary in my own style", she continues "I have constrained my intellect, forced it to concentrate on one subject after another; on some of the dullest and least illuminating details of social organization…”

Accomplishments

1887: Beatrice Potter Webb wrote her first book on working conditions

Developed reform laws

Interested in how to use facts to generate policy-relevant theory

Research and PracticeOthers, tried to form a social science combining research and application

Jane AddamsUniversity of Chicago's Department of Sociology looked at empirical studies as "women's work"

"Most of the social and political reforms of the time came about as a result of the Webb's research and political insight”

• Important economist • Campaigned against capitalism

• Fabian Society• Reconstruct society with highest moral possibilities

Beatrice and Sidney Webb wrote The History of Trade Unionism (1894) and Industrial Democracy (1897). To convince people to create new political party that defended socialism in parliament

1905 government established Commission to look into “the laws relating to the relief of poor persons in the United Kingdom”

Webbs wrote Minority Report:- End of the Poor Laws

- Efficient use of labour resources

- Improve essential services--education and health

The Poor Law

To provide relief for the poor

Developed in 16th-century England

Maintained until after World War II

Elizabethan Poor Laws (1597–98)

Provided relief for aged, sick, and

infants

Able-bodied poor work in workhouses

The Poor LawExpenditures on public relief was so

great

New Poor Law enacted in 1834Harsher philosophy

Pauperism among able-bodied as

moral failingNo relief for able-bodied poor except

employment in workhouses

Workers to seek regular employment

rather than charity

The Poor Law--WorkhouseFamilies split upHad to wear uniformsStrict rulesDiet--bread and watery soup

Conditions so terrible that only people who desperately needed help would go there

• Beatrice Webb influence for socialist, democratic, and moderate government

• Role in economy with the London School of Economics and Political Science

• Wrote the principles of social welfare in the Minority Report as well as hundreds of books

In closingNever had children

Beatrice chose “brain work” rather than motherhood

She died in 1943.

Her ashes initially interred in garden of Webb home in Passfield Corner (with her husband who died in 1947)

George Bernard Shaw succeeded in having them reburied in Westminster Abbey