This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Parliament and Women, c.1900-1945 Takayanagi, Mari Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. 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Parliament and Women, c.1900-1945 Mari Catherine Takayanagi King's College London PhD 1 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author Abstract This thesis examines the relationship between Parliament and women in the early twentieth century. It does so with particular reference to legislation affecting women's lives and gender equality, the contribution of women to Parliamentary standing committees and select committees, and women staff in the House of Commons and House of Lords. Four pieces of legislation are studied in detail: the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 that allowed women to become Members of Parliament; the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 that widened employment opportunities for women; the Guardianship of Infants Act 1925 that enabled guardianship of children to be granted equally for men and women; and finally the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise Act) 1928 that gave women the vote on the same terms as men. Together these Acts encompass an important and diverse range of issues. This thesis contends that a full comprehension of its Parliamentary passage enables each Act to be better understood and evaluated in its contemporary context. The contribution of women MPs to standing committees, which scrutinise legislation, and the participation of women as members, witnesses and staff to select committees of inquiry, is studied here for the first time, filling a significant gap in the historiography. Finally this thesis provides an analysis of the work and lives of women working in Parliament, letting us view Parliament as an environment for women and enabling the House of Commons and House of Lords to be brought into the broader literature of women workers. This thesis, by considering Parliament in the context of its relationship with women, enables a new understanding of the nature of Parliament in this period, which more accurately reflects its diverse nature. In this way this thesis gives new insights into how Parliament viewed and interacted with women in the early twentieth century. 2 Table of Contents Page List of Figures and Tables 4 List of Abbreviations 6 Acknowledgments 7 Introduction 9 Chapter 1 How women came to be Members of Parliament: The passage of the 16 Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 Chapter 2 Widening employment opportunities for women: The passage of the Sex 38 Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 Chapter 3 Equality in law? The passage of the Equal Guardianship Act 1925 78 Chapter 4 The path to equal franchise: The passage of the Equal Franchise Act 103 1928, and earlier attempts Chapter 5 'There are many committees and not enough women, they simply won't 143 go round': Women and Standing Committee service Chapter 6 'The evidence we want will not be forthcoming if a lot of men are sitting 175 round the table': Women and Select Committee Service Chapter 7 'The woman who can do this job has not yet been born': Women Staff in 217 Parliament, c1900-1945 Conclusion 256 Appendix 1 Members of Parliament (Commons and Lords) referenced in the text, 264 with party affiliation Appendix 2 Organisations represented at the deputation to the Lord Chancellor and 271 Bonar Law on proviso (a) of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill, 29 July 1919 Appendix 3 Organisations supporting the Equal Guardianship Bill in 1921 271 Appendix 4 Organisations supporting the Equal Guardianship Bill in 1923 272 Appendix 5 Deputation on equal franchise from the Equal Rights Political Campaign 272 Committee to the Prime Minister, 8 May 1927 Appendix 6 Women witnesses who gave evidence to the Select Committee on Equal 273 Compensation, 1942-43 Bibliography 274 3 List of Figures and Tables Page Table 3.1 Equal Guardianship bills, 1920-1925 79 Table 4.1 Equal Franchise bills, 1919-1928 104 Figure 4.1 Distribution of voting numbers per division, 1928 138 Table 5.1 Number of women on standing committees 146 Figure 5.1 Women on standing committees 146 Table 5.2 List of women MPs, the number of standing committees they were 147 summoned to and attended Table 5.3 Men's and women's attendances on standing committees 152 Figure 5.2 Men's and women's attendances on standing committees compared 152 Table 5.4 Standing committees: mens' and women's contributions to debate 154 Table 5.5 Standing committees: mens' and women's average lines contributed 154 per attendance Table 5.6 Standing committees: total contribution of individual women MPs 156 Figure 5.3 Standing committees: women's contributions by political party 156 Table 5.7 Standing committees: complete list of women's contributions 156 Figure 5.4 Subjects of debate in the Commons chamber (Harrison data) 162 Figure 5.5 Subjects of debate in standing committees 162 Figure 5.6 Subjects of debate in the chamber (Harrison data): welfare 163 breakdown Figure 5.7 Subjects of debate in standing committees: welfare breakdown 163 Table 6.1 Number of women MPs on select committees 181 Figure 6.1 Women on select committees 182 Table 6.2 List of select committees with women members 183 Table 6.3 Regular 'core' select committees 185 Table 6.4 All other select committees with no women members 186 Table 6.5 Select committee Attendances - Kitchen Committee 188 Table 6.6 Select committee Attendances excluding Kitchen Committee 190 Table 7.1 Households in the Houses of Parliament, 1901 Census 218 4 Table 7.2 Households in the Houses of Parliament, 1911 Census 219 Table 7.3 Heads of the Accounting and Copying Department, House of Lords, 248 1903-1957 5 List of Abbreviations CUL Cambridge University Library HC Deb House of Commons Parliamentary Debates, 5th series unless otherwise stated HL Deb House of Lords Parliamentary Debates, 5th series unless otherwise stated ILP Independent Labour Party LMA London Metropolitan Archives LSE London School of Economics NUSEC National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography PA Parliamentary Archives SC Deb Standing Committee Debates TNA The National Archives WL Women's Library WFL Women's Freedom League Names of MPs and peers: The first time an individual MP or peer is mentioned in the text, their first name, surname, and party is given (either in the text or in a footnote). Thereafter, they may be referred to by surname only. For ease of reference, a complete list of all MPs and peers mentioned in the text, and their parties, is given in Appendix 1. 6 Acknowledgements My thanks first go to my supervisor, Professor Pat Thane, for all her help, support and advice over the seven years this thesis has been in progress, first at the Institute of Historical Research and then at King's College London. I am very grateful to my employer, the House of Lords, for supporting my PhD as an approved course. I could not have embarked on my thesis without the help and support of my managers at the Parliamentary Archives; Stephen Ellison and Caroline Shenton, successive heads of office, and David Prior, Head of Public Services & Outreach.