From the beginning in Rochdale, working women were the managers of the domestic economy and, therefore, the main shoppers in cooperative consumer stores. They were the ones who ensured that cooperatives prospered, choosing the ethic of surplus return over speculative profit. Their role focused on oversight.
In the United States, a clear example is Alice Lakey (1857–1935). Although best known for her work in insurance regulation, she was a tireless consumer advocate.
She advocated for transparency, food quality and the creation of consumer cooperatives as a direct protection mechanism for families against abusive prices and adulterated products. Lakey demonstrated how consumer activism could be a powerful form of social cooperation.
Leadership in the workplace and the labour struggle
Worker cooperatives were also a vital field of action, especially for immigrant and working-class women facing extreme working conditions in the textile sector.
Here, the figure of Clara Lemlich (1886–1982) is emblematic. As a union organiser and central figure in the historic ‘Strike of 20,000’ in New York in 1909, Lemlich not only fought for better wages and conditions, but also promoted the formation of housing and consumer cooperatives for her fellow workers. She understood that cooperation offered a comprehensive solution: if they fought for fair wages in the factory (trade unionism), they also had to ensure that those wages were not eaten up by high rents and inflated prices in the shops (co-operativism).
Lemlich and other women labour leaders demonstrated that co-operatives were tools of resistance and self-help that empowered women in the face of capitalist exploitation.
Throughout the 20th century, women led the development of credit unions, especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Often excluded from traditional banking, women found in cooperatives a space that, under the principle of ‘Open Doors,’ offered them microcredit and financial services for their small businesses.
This leadership transcended the economic sphere. Women organised and led the cooperatives' education, health and social welfare committees. They understood that cooperation was not just about business, but about comprehensive community development.
Although the principle of ‘one member, one vote’ guarantees equality, the struggle for gender parity on boards of directors remains a global focus. Cooperatives were among the first to offer voting rights to women long before national elections, but the battle to gain access to leadership positions has been ongoing.
