LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Annie Besant: Women
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The next day, Annie Besant went and interviewed some of the people who worked at Bryant & May. She discovered that the women worked fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than five shillings a week. However, they did not always received their full wage because of a system of fines, ranging from three pence to one shilling, imposed by the Bryant & May management. Offences included talking, dropping matches or going to the toilet without permission. The women worked from 6.30 am in summer (8.00 in winter) to 6.00 pm. If workers were late, they were fined a half-day's pay.
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Social reformer and freethinker, Annie Besant - Wood wrote many articles on issues such as marriage and women's rights for National Reformer. In 1877 she wrote a book called, The Law of Population and later published The Link, promoting women's rights. Elected to the London School Board in 1889, she initiated a programme of free meals for undernourished children and free medical examinations for elementary school students.
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Annie Besant ... discovered that the health of the women had been severely affected by the phosphorous that they used to make the matches. This caused yellowing of the skin and hair loss and phossy jaw, a form of bone cancer. The whole side of the face turned green and then black, discharging foul-smelling pus and finally death. Although phosphorous was banned in Sweden and the USA, the British government had refused to follow their example, arguing that it would be a restraint of free trade.
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In 1873 Annie Besant (1847–1933) left both her marriage to an Anglican clergyman and the church to become active in feminist and socialist causes. When she heard in 1888 about the high dividends paid to stockholders of the Bryant and May match factory, versus the low wages paid to the laborers there, she wrote a series of articles that led to a public boycott and a strike of fourteen hundred match workers. The excerpts here are taken from Strong-Minded Women by Janet Horowitz Murray.
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Annie met the women and set up a committee, which led the women into a strike for better pay and conditions. The action won enormous public support. Annie led demonstrations by "match-girls". They were cheered in the streets, and prominent churchmen wrote in their support. In just over a week they forced the firm to improve pay and conditions. Annie then helped them to set up a proper union and a social centre.
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[F]ollowed the long series of the lives of Alcyone, in some of which Dr. Besant collaborated. The writing out of these lives was done by Bishop Leadbeater, with the exception of Life No. XXVIII which was written by Dr. Besant. Anyone reading this particular life will note how dramatically it is written, with a graphic quality and power which are not characteristic of the other lives. Dr. Besant read it herself at a “roof meeting,” with tears streaming from her eyes as she described the tragic fate of herself and Krishnamurti, then born as two women.
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