Margaret MacDonald (social reformer)

Monument to Margaret MacDonald by Richard Reginald Goulden, in the garden of Lincoln's Inn Fields, London

Margaret MacDonald, née Margaret Ethel Gladstone (20 July 1870 – 8 September 1911) was a British feminist, social reformer, and wife of Labour politician Ramsay MacDonald from 1896 until her death from blood poisoning in 1911. He subsequently became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times, but did not remarry.

Margaret Gladstone was born in Kensington, London to John Hall Gladstone, later Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, and unrelated to the Gladstones of the Liberal Party. She was educated both at home and at Doreck College in Bayswater. Early in adulthood she was involved in voluntary social work, including visits for the Charity Organisation Society in Hoxton.

By 1890 she was a keen socialist, influenced by the Christian Socialists and the Fabian Society.

In 1894 she joined the Women's Industrial Council, serving on several committees and organising the enquiry into home work in London, which was published in 1897. She met Ramsay MacDonald through this work in 1895. She was comfortably off, although not wealthy. This allowed them to indulge in foreign travel, visiting Canada and the United States in 1897, South Africa in 1902, Australia and New Zealand in 1906 and India several times.

After her marriage she was concerned about the need for skilled work and training for women, and played a key part in establishing the first trade schools for girls in 1904. She continued this work until 1910.

She was a member of the National Union of Women Workers. She served on the executive of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, although she was opposed to militant action. In 1906 she became involved in the formation of the Women's Labour League until her death in 1911.

The marriage to Ramsay MacDonald was a very happy one, and they had six children, including Malcolm MacDonald (1901–81), who had a prominent career as a politician, colonial governor and diplomat, and Ishbel MacDonald (1903–82), official hostess to her father.