The Spinster Magazine

• Official Organ of the National Spinsters Pensions Association
• 127 x 178mm (5 x 7in)
• January-February 1948
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The National Spinsters’ Pensions Association (NSPA), established in 1935, was led by Florence White who tirelessly campaigned for State pensions to be provided for working single women at 55.

The NSPA had a membership of 150,000 with branches throughout the country organising large rallies, marches, and petitions to Parliament.

The first victory of the Association's pension reform was achieved in January 1940 when the age which single women could retire was lowered from 65 to 60.

The struggle had been arduous, in the long war years when women made a highly creditable quota to the war effort, the NPSA had persistently kept their pension aim of earlier pension treatment before the country and before Parliament. They had succeeded in their efforts in the lowering of the age to 60 but the ultimate objective was their claim for optional pension at 55 for spinsters.

July 1948 would see the Government introducing the Insurance Act which did not recognise the Association's long-pressed cause for pension consideration for working single women before the age of 60. The NSPA believed once the Act was in full operation it would take years to gain the reform which they knew to be so necessary for the security and well-being of the older single women of the day. Hence the rallying call to gather at Caxton Hall for a great national lobbying effort to further the cause.