Name/TitleBadges: Women's League of Health & Beauty
About this objectSet of six round badges pinned to a leather strip. A silver badge on top is the largest: it bears the words 'Women's League of Health & Beauty / Movement is Life' around the outside and depicts a female stretched out in movement in the centre. Five smaller badges below all bear the initials WLHB against different coloured backgrounds (pale blue, purple, red-white-blue, yellow and red).
MakerW.O. Lewis (Badges) Ltd
Maker RoleManufacturer
Periodmid 20th century
Place MadeEngland, Birmingham
Medium and MaterialsInorganic, metal
Organic, leather
MeasurementsH: 122 x W: 37 mm
Dia: 32 mm (large badge)
Dia: 14 mm (small badges)
Subject and Association KeywordsHealth & well-being
Subject and Association Keywordsfitness, exercise
Subject and Association Keywords(anti) racism
Subject and Association KeywordsWomen's League of Health & Beauty
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bagot_Stack:
Mary Bagot Stack (12 June 1883 – 26 January 1935), known as Mollie Bagot Stack, founded the Women's League of Health & Beauty in 1930, the first and most significant mass keep-fit system of the 1930s in the UK. This has continued as an exercise system into the 21st century.
Her big innovation was to move from small, private classes to a mass-market movement. In 1930 this grew into a commercial enterprise, the Women's League of Health and Beauty, using the YMCA's Regent Street premises. Public displays in London garnered publicity, and more centres started in 1932 in Bromley, Southend, Slough, Bournemouth, Croydon, Birmingham, Glasgow followed by Ayr, Paisley and Edinburgh and finally franchised centres all over the UK. The Women's League of Health and Beauty classes included elements from dance, callisthenics, and remedial, slimming, and rhythmical exercise to music. The League published its own magazine, Mother and Daughter, from 1933 to 1935 with content on pacifism and feminist political discussion as well as general self-improvement. Her book Building the Body Beautiful - The Bagot Stack stretch-and-swing system was published in 1931.
The organisation has been described as the most popular female physical culture organization in Britain. The league adapted eugenicist terms and saw women as "natural race builders". Their aim was to promote "racial health" through physical exercise. The organisation grew rapidly so that by 1934 there were 47,000 members but this had grown to 166,000 in 1937. Her daughter Prunella, along with others, continued promoting this exercise system so that what is now called the "Flexercise" movement continues as a national fitness programme in the UK.
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypeBadge
Object numberGWL-2013-4-1
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved