Items18The creator’s order
  1. 1Constance MarkieviczConstance MarkieviczBorn 4 Feb 1868The first woman elected to the House of Commons, for Dublin St Patrick's in December 1918, Markievicz never took her seat: as a Sinn Féin member she refused to swear allegiance, and she was in Holloway prison when elected. She instead became Minister for Labour in the first Dáil, one of the first…0i
  2. 2Nancy Astor, Viscountess AstorNancy Astor, Viscountess AstorBorn 19 May 1879The first woman to sit in the Commons, from 1919, Astor spent years as the only woman in a chamber designed for men, with no women's lavatory nearby and members who openly hoped she would fail. She used the role deliberately, working across party with later women MPs on causes including the 1923…0i
  3. 3Margaret Haig Thomas, 2nd Viscountess RhonddaMargaret Haig Thomas, 2nd Viscountess RhonddaBorn 12 Jun 1883Inheriting her father's viscountcy in 1918, Lady Rhondda petitioned in 1922 to take her seat in the Lords under the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act. The Committee for Privileges first agreed and then, after Lord Birkenhead intervened, reversed itself. She campaigned for the rest of her life,…0i
  4. 4Eleanor RathboneEleanor RathboneBorn 12 May 1872An independent MP from 1929 to 1946, Rathbone showed what a member without party could achieve through persistence. She forced the coalition to pay family allowances directly to mothers in 1945, campaigned on child marriage in India and the rights of women in the empire, and in the 1930s and 1940s…0i
  5. 5Ellen WilkinsonEllen WilkinsonBorn 8 Oct 1891As MP for Jarrow, Wilkinson marched with the 1936 Jarrow Crusade and presented its petition to the Commons, bringing unemployment in the north-east into the chamber in a way MPs could not ignore. Earlier she had piloted the Hire Purchase Act of 1938 through as a private member's bill, protecting…0i
  6. 6Barbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of AbingerBarbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of AbingerBorn 14 Apr 1897A criminologist and economist, Wootton was among the first four women to enter the House of Lords as life peers under the Life Peerages Act of 1958, and in 1967 became the first woman to sit on the Woolsack as a deputy speaker. Her work in the chamber and on official committees, including the 1968…0i
  7. 7Betty Harvie AndersonBetty Harvie AndersonA Conservative MP for East Renfrewshire, Harvie Anderson became the first woman to chair proceedings in the Commons when she was appointed a Deputy Speaker in 1970, serving until 1973. She showed a woman could keep order in the chamber two decades before Betty Boothroyd became Speaker, and broke a…0i
  8. 8Margaret ThatcherMargaret ThatcherBorn 13 Oct 1925The first woman prime minister, from 1979 to 1990, is included for what changed under her rather than for being first. Her government created the departmental select committee system in 1979, proposed by her Leader of the House, Norman St John-Stevas, which transformed Commons scrutiny, and the…0i
  9. 9Diane AbbottDiane AbbottBorn 27 Sept 1953Elected in 1987 as the first Black woman MP, alongside Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz, Abbott changed who Parliament represented. She has served Hackney North and Stoke Newington continuously since and became Mother of the House in 2024. She has also been the target of a scale of online…0i
  10. 10Betty BoothroydBetty BoothroydBorn 8 Oct 1929Elected the first woman Speaker in 1992, Boothroyd, a former dancer and Labour MP for West Bromwich, declined to wear the traditional wig and ran the chamber with blunt authority through the Maastricht rebellions, becoming familiar to television viewers for her cry of 'Time's up!' at question time.…0i