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Women in Parliament: Making a Difference Since 1918 Editors: Oonagh Gay and Richard Cracknell

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Women in Parliament: Making a Difference Since 1918 Editors: Oonagh Gay and Richard Cracknell WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT: Making a difference since 1918 Editors: Oonagh Gay and Richard Cracknell The following individuals contributed to the writing and design of this booklet: Gavin Berman, Louise Butcher, Catherine Fairbairn, Charley Coleman, Melanie Gower, Steven Kennedy, Matt Keep, Lucinda Maer, Doug Pyper, Antony Seely, Djuna Thurley and Wendy Wilson, House of Commons Library Lee Morrow, House of Commons Print Services Mari Takayanagi, Parliamentary Archives Melanie Unwin, Parliamentary Curator’s Office Cover images clockwise from top-left: Eleanor Rathbone Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North by Julian Barrow, after an original by Sir James Gunn and Stoke Newington 1987 in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, by Stuart Pearson Wright London (NPG 4133) 2004, oil painting (detail) 1998, oil painting (detail) WOA 6270 © Palace of Westminster WOA 4391 © National Portrait Gallery Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor MP The Rt. Hon Betty Boothroyd MP, Speaker by Michael Rizzello by Jane Bond 1995, bronze sculpture (detail) 1999, oil painting (detail) WOA S251 © Palace of Westminster WOA 5445 © Palace of Westminster Ellen Wilkinson Baroness Williams of Crosby (Shirley Williams) Parliamentary Archives, PIC/P/328(detail) by Victoria Russell 2007, oil on canvas (detail) Rt. Hon Margaret Beckett MP by Antony Williams WOA 6590 © Palace of Westminster 2011, tempera easel painting (detail) Jennie Lee WOA 7203 © Palace of Westminster Parliamentary Archives, PHO/9/1/44(detail) The Rt. Hon Margaret Thatcher OM, Portrait of Baroness Amos MP, Prime Minister by Paul Benney by Henry Mee 2004, oil on canvas (detail) 1992, oil painting (detail) WOA 6386 © Palace of Westminster WOA 3634 © Palace of Westminster Baroness Hayman, the Lord Speaker by Sergei Pavlenko 2008, oil painting (detail) WOA 6806 © Palace of Westminster Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holder of PIC/P/328 & PHO/9/1/44 but please contact us if you have any information. NOVEMBER 2013 Contents Women in Parliament .......................................................................1 HistorY ..........................................................................................1 Profiles .........................................................................................7 Women MPS making laws ............................................................. 13 Private Members’ Bills .............................................................. 16 Government Bills Introduced BY Women ............................ 17 Parliament: Making laws affecting women ............................. 21 CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS ...................................................................27 FOREWORD BY Rt. Hon John BeRCOW MP, SPEAKER of the hoUse of COMMons The long campaign to give women the vote was finally successful in 1918 at the end of the First World War. But what happened next? This booklet from the Commons Library shows how women MPs made a difference both to Parliament and to the everyday life of women in the United Kingdom. The 2010 Speaker’s Conference showed the continuing importance of promoting a House of Commons more representative of its electors. To set the lives of remarkable female pioneers in context, we should remember that since 1918 there have been fewer women MPs in total – 369 – than there are men currently sitting in the House of Commons. Rt. Hon John Bercow MP Speaker Women in Parliament HIstoRY After a long campaign, women first were able to vote in parliamentary elections in 1918. This was restricted to qualifying women over 30. Separate legislation was quickly passed later that year to allow women to stand for the Commons. Holloway Prison following her arrest with a number of other Irish Nationalists earlier in Who can Vote anD BE an MP? 1918. As she stood for the Irish Republican Representation of the People Act 1918 Party, Sinn Féin, she did not take her seat gave the vote to women aged 30 and above at Westminster. Countess Markievicz was Parliament (Qualification of Women) later the first female member of the Irish Act 1918 Dáil convened in 1919. allowed women over 21 to stand as an MP Representation of the People The first woman to take her seat in (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 the Commons was Viscountess Nancy extended women’s voting age to 21 years Astor. She was elected at a by-election in Representation of the People Act 1969 November 1919, for the Plymouth seat extended the voting age to those aged 18 previously held by her husband. He could and over no longer be an MP when he inherited a Electoral Administration Act 2006 peerage. In fact, the next two women to reduced the age for candidacy to 18 take their seats were also elected for seats previously held by their husbands (Margaret Wintringham, September 1921 and Mabel Of the 1,623 candidates for the 1918 general Philipson, May 1923). election, only 17 were women. Not one of the prominent suffragette campaigners was The voting age was equalised for men and elected. The only successful candidate and women in 1928 by the Equal Franchise first woman MP was Countess Markievicz. Act. Just 10 years after women first gained She took no active part herself in the the vote, the legislation was relatively election campaign for her seat, St. Patrick’s uncontroversial with only 10 MPs voting 1 division of Dublin, as she was being held in against the Bill. WOMen Mps SINCE 1918 • There have been 369 women elected to Parliament since 1918, two of whom were Sinn Féin MPs who never sat in the Commons. • 35% of all the women MPs since 1918 were first elected in the last 20 years. MPs SInce 1918 BY GenDER MEN 92% WOMEN 8% • Of the 369 women elected since 1918, 61% were first elected for Labour, 28% for Conservative and 6% for the Liberal Democrats (and predecessor parties). • 54 (15%) of these 369 women first entered Parliament at a by-election. WOMEN MPs SInce 1918 BY paRTY Lab 224 Con 105 LD/Lib/SDP 23 SNP 6 UU 3 SF 2 SDLP 1 Ind. Unity 1 IND 1 Green 1 DU 1 Alliance 1 0 50 100 150 200 250 2 In the years following 1918 the number of election. This was at least in part due to the women Members of Parliament grew slowly, combination of the Labour landslide and reaching 15 in 1931. 24 were elected in the impact of all women shortlists. Since the 1945 general election and the number then the number has risen less dramatically did not vary markedly for another fifty to 143 in 2010. As a result of by-elections years. In 1992 the number rose to 60 and the number of women MPs is now 147, 23 then doubled to 120 at the 1997 general per cent of the total. WOMEN MPs, 1918-2010 25% 20% 15% F ALL MPS ALL F O ON 10% RTI O P O PR 5% 0% 1974 1974 1918 1951 1931 1970 1924 1979 1935 2010 1955 1929 1959 1922 1923 1992 1997 1950 1987 1945 1983 1966 2001 1964 2005 GENERAL ELECTIONS 3 Women eLected to the House Of Commons, by ParTy Of firsT eLectiOn 1918–2013 PUttING WoMen on the Map Among current female Members, Harriet Women have been more likely to be Harman has the longest continuous service MPs in towns and cities than in rural (31 years to date). She was elected at a constituencies. This at least partly reflects by-election in October 1982 for Peckham. the tendency for Labour seats to be in However, Margaret Beckett has the longest urban areas and the high number of women total service (35 years to date). She was first Labour MPs, compared with other parties. elected in October 1974 but lost her seat in But women MPs have tended to cluster 1979. She was elected again in 1983 and has in constituencies in some of the UK’s served continuously since then. biggest cities – London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and ShoRtest seRVICE Glasgow. Birmingham Edgbaston has had both Labour and Conservative women MPs Ruth Dalton served just 92 days as the MP continuously since 1953. for Durham, Bishop Auckland in 1929. Her husband had been elected as an MP for the Other parts of the UK have had relatively then marginal Peckham constituency in few women. Only 14 women MPs have 1924 and he had already been selected as the ever represented constituencies in Wales. Labour candidate for the safe seat of Bishop There are parts of the UK which have Auckland when the sitting MP died. The never had a woman MP in one of their constituency Labour Party therefore needed constituencies – the North of Scotland, the a candidate who would agree to stand down Borders, Cumbria and parts of Dorset and at the next general election. Ruth Dalton Hampshire are yet to have a woman MP. was chosen because she could be relied on to resign in favour of her husband. In doing so she set the record as the shortest serving LOngesT serviCe woman MP and allowed her husband to be Gwyneth Dunwoody was (and remains) elected there at the 1929 general election. the longest serving woman MP, both in terms of total service (38.3 years) and continuous service (34.1 years). Previously Barbara Castle had served continuously for 33.8 years. Irene Ward had broken service totalling 37.7 years. 5 MiLestones fOr Women in ParLiaMenT - 1918 - First woman elected to the House of Commons was Countess Markievicz - 1919 - first woman to sit in the house of Commons was Lady astor - 1958 - Baroness Wootton of Abinger was the first woman to receive letters patent as a life peer in the Lords - 1970 - Betty Harvie Anderson was the first woman Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons - 1992 - Betty Boothroyd was the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons Marion Roe was the first woman chair of a departmental select committee - 2006 - baroness hayman became the first Lord speaker of the house of Lords - 2008 - Gwyneth Dunwoody died in service. She is the longest serving woman MP with 38 years in parliament.
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