| Biography | The WUA was set up by the Conservative Party in 1918 in the wake of female enfranchisement. It grew very rapidly out of the Women's Amalgamated Unionist and Tariff Reform Association: in 1921 it claimed 1,340 branches and over 4,000 in 1924; membership rose from one million in 1928 but then stabilised and declined after 1933. The WUA was presided over by a Women's Advisory Committee at Conservative Central Office. It held annual conferences and in 1927 Dame Caroline Bridgeman became the first woman to chair the National Union. It is not clear when the association wound up, but some branches were still active in the early 1950s. |