BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

vigilant but increasingly strained effort to offset decline through the
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introduction of organizational
innovations, and the constant reference
to the threat of imperial disintegration as a means of maintaining
support and mobilization.
The impact of these factors on the overall
development of the League is the main focus of this chapter's inquiry.
In assessing the patterns of power and influence, Ostrogorski
made a distinction between the Primrose Dames, who were the chief
workers in the League enterprise, and the real arbiters of policy: the
all male Grand Council.
In every respect it may be said that the League rests
on women; it is they who keep it going and eventually
ensure its success, although the number of members of
the male sex not only equals, but even slightly
exceeds, that of the women.
It would be a mistake, however, to infer from
this that the influence of women in the League cor­
responds to the importance of their role. The women
work, but the men direct them, especially the men in
London. The women are only an instrument in their
hands which they wield with skill and firmness. . . .
The Grand Council of Dames, which sits in London, has
no real authority; each of its acts of any moment is
submitted to the approval of the Grand Council composed
of men. The Council of Dames is simply a decorative
body serving as a pretext for subscriptions, a consid­
erable amount of which goes into the coffers of the
Grand Council .1
While Ostrogorski properly characterized the explicit
organizational chart governing the behavior of the League as elaborated
in its statutes and Precepts, he neglected the implicit means of
influence and initiative exercised by women in both the London
headquarters and the local Habitations.
Their powers were indicated at
* Ostrogorski, Democracy and the Organization of Political
Parties, vol. 1, pp. 547-48.