(6652): Women Members of Parliament
Research Briefing Number 6652 Women Members of Parliament By Richard Kelly 5 July 2021 1 Women MPs by date of first election This briefing paper provides a list of all the women who have ever been elected to the House of Commons, since the passage of the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918, which allowed women to stand as parliamentary candidates from 1918. One of the earliest women MPs, Susan Lawrence (first elected in December 1923), “objected to being called ‘a woman MP’. ‘Why don’t you call Churchill a man MP?’ she was apt to demand”.1 Following the 2019 General Election, of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, 220 were held by women MPs. At that time, it was the highest number of women MPs ever to sit at the same time in the House of Commons.2 Since the General Election, Dame Cheryl Gillan has died and Tracy Brabin stood down, following her election as the first Mayor West Yorkshire. But four new women MPs have been elected at by-elections: • Jill Mortimer, Hartlepool, on 6 May 2021; • Anum Qaisar-Javed, Airdrie and Shotts, on 13 May 2021; 1 Pamela Brookes, Women at Westminster, 1967, p51 2 At the 2017 General Election, 208 women were elected – a record number, at that time. During the 2017 Parliament, women MPs were elected at all five by-elections (see the Library Briefing, By-elections since the 2017 General Election). They replaced three men and two women, so by the end of the Parliament, the number of women MPs had increased to 211 commonslibrary.parliament.uk Women Members of Parliament • Sarah Green, Chesham and Amersham, on 17 June 2021; and • Kim Leadbeater, Batley and Spen, on 1 July 2021.
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