Tag: Women MPs

Contemporary History, 20th century history, Elections, Electoral Reform, Modern, Oral history, Women and Parliament

All-Women Shortlists: 30 Years On

During the 1993 Labour Party Conference, all-women shortlists were endorsed by the party. In the following general election in 1997, the number of women MPs doubled. In this blog, Alfie Steer explores our oral history archive and discusses the controversy of AWS and its impact on Parliament. This year marks thirty years since the Labour Party first introduced all-women’s shortlists (AWS) for parliamentary selections. Its … Continue reading All-Women Shortlists: 30 Years On

Alfie Steer1 Comment
Contemporary History, 20th century history, Modern, Oral history, Speakers of the House, Women and Parliament

Women Speakers and Deputy Speakers

As we have seen in some of our previous blogs, the role of Speaker of the House has a long history, but it wasn’t until the late 20th century that women took to the Speaker’s Chair. Through the History of Parliament Oral History Project we have been able to interview some of the female former MPs who occupied the roles of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, … Continue reading Women Speakers and Deputy Speakers

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20th century history, Contemporary History, Modern, Oral history, Women and Parliament

‘You’d better accept you’ll have to concentrate on domestic politics for now’ – gender bias in the post-war House of Commons

As Women’s History Month reaches a close, Dr Emma Peplow, lead coordinator of our Oral History Project, looks back through our interview archive to explore a theme often discussed by female interviewees: gender bias in the post-war House of Commons… For many of the former female MPs interviewed for our oral history project, their experiences in Parliament seem to be both as insiders and outsiders … Continue reading ‘You’d better accept you’ll have to concentrate on domestic politics for now’ – gender bias in the post-war House of Commons

Emma Peplow1 Comment
Modern, 18th Century history, 19th Century history, 20th century history, Electoral Reform, History of Parliament Trust, Women and Parliament

Voice and Vote: Celebrating 100 Years of Votes for Women – a guidebook

Dr Paul Seaward is one of the editors of the “Voice & Vote guidebook” to accompany the UK Parliament Vote 100 project‘s landmark exhibition in Westminster Hall. In today’s blog he explains the contents of the book, who contributed to it and where you can get one… Last week we were delighted to celebrate with the curators of the wonderful Voice and Vote exhibition in Westminster … Continue reading Voice and Vote: Celebrating 100 Years of Votes for Women – a guidebook

Paul Seaward4 Comments
Contemporary History, 20th century history, Modern, Oral history, Women and Parliament

Women MPs in the 1990s

This month’s blog for the Women and Parliament series as part of our activities in celebration of the centenary of the Representation the People Act 1918, which allowed some women to vote in the UK for the first time, comes from our Assistant Director and one of the coordinators of our oral history project, Dr Emma Peplow. She discusses the experiences of women MPs in the … Continue reading Women MPs in the 1990s

Emma Peplow4 Comments
Modern, 20th century history, Irish History, Social history, Women and Parliament

The Eligibility of Constance Markievicz

On 14th December 1918, Countess Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) became the first woman to be elected to the UK Parliament, but she did not take her seat. Dr Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist at the Parliamentary Archives  and joint Project Manager for Vote 100  discusses how this came about and whether she would in fact have been eligible to be an MP. In 1918, the Representation of … Continue reading The Eligibility of Constance Markievicz

History of Parliament5 Comments