Thinking about middle class and working class

I've been reading around middle class and working class women and embroidery.

At a talk yesterday, the speaker said there was friction between middle and working class women in the suffragette movement.  Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, of the Women's Social and Political union pushed the group towards championing suffrage, to the exclusion of other women's issues, thus alienating working class women within the movement.  Sylvia Pankhurst was excluded from the WSPU by her mother and sister around 1913, because she wanted to focus on the issues of the working class women.  Sylvia was a pacifist; set up the Society of East London Suffragettes; set up a cost-price restaurant (to avoid the 'charity' label) for poor people;  created a toy factory to employ women made unemployed during wartime (conchies?); and lobbied for soldier's wives to have war allowances paid to them.  Her mother and sister lobbied for conscription, and were pro-war, suspending militant suffrage activities.

Middle class women wanted the support of working class women, but did not represent the working class woman's issues, and instead represented their own.  There is friction between what is important to different classes.

I've struggled with my class identity - as how I identify my class, is different to how others see me.  I identify as working class  for the following reasons:

- brought up by parents who lived in poverty (low wages/unemployed)
- trained as a secretary
- I worked to support myself for 30 years (no man needed to keep me)
- Worked in manual industry - railway
- no private income
- political views - I want the worker to be paid a fair rate for the job

Thus my view is apparently quite Marxist - mostly about working because I have nothing but my body and skills to earn my living.  I do not own the method of production.

Yet I keep being told I come across as middle class (wealth, education, occupation)

- I appear to be wealthy.  (Because I can manage money competently, and don't waste it, also have no dependents)
- Retired at 48
- Pension income is mine, because of my contributions (ie not dependent)
- Occupation: management
- Education.  I've always enjoyed education.  Leisure classes from mid-20s - embroidery/art. Professional qualification - IPD in my 30s.  Degree at 51.  Higher degree now.

All the middle class criteria came my way during middle age, as a consequence of my lifestyle (single, no children) and inclination (seeking activities/occupations to keep my mind busy).

As I accept that working class women get hacked off with middle class women hi-jacking and taking credit for their achievements, how do I resolve this in my work?  Ford machinists were really angry that their dispute was taken over by middle class women as the catalyst for the Equal Pay Act - which is about equal pay for equal work, when the dispute was about recognition of skill, and being paid equitably for their skill levels.    I really understand that working class women want their skills/issues recognised, not their cause being used to further what is important to middle class women.

So if I'm seen as middle class, then representing working class women could be really patronising.  I'm trying to overcome this by representing them positively for what was important to them (Gifti, Mavis, and Sarpong, the toilet cleaners) or their families (Mrs Konieczny, Aunt Joan, Aunt Daisy).