Women and Parliament
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‘The only really important public service I performed’: John Stuart Mill’s women’s suffrage amendment, 20 May 1867
Having looked at John Stuart Mill’s role in presenting the first mass petition for women’s suffrage, our colleague Dr Kathryn…
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‘The first humble beginnings of an agitation’: the women’s suffrage petition of 7 June 1866
The campaign to secure the parliamentary vote for women was a long-running one. Dr Kathryn Rix, assistant editor of our…
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‘A woman actually voted!’: Lily Maxwell and the Manchester by-election of November 1867
More than half a century before the partial enfranchisement of women in 1918, Lily Maxwell, a Manchester shopkeeper, cast a…
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A Meddlesome Mother? Queen Charlotte and the Regency Crisis
In October 1788, George III fell ill with an unknown ‘malady’ which rendered him unable to fulfil his duties as…
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‘A Manly Place’: Experiences of Women in Parliament after 1997
On 19 March 2024, the History of Parliament Trust hosted the second in a series of events drawing on their…
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Political Grandstanding in the 18th Century
In an age of social media and immediate news coverage, publicity opportunities have become a central part of political strategy-…
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Elizabeth I’s Swedish lady of the privy chamber: Helena Ulfsdotter née Snakenborg, marchioness of Northampton
As we mark Women’s History Month throughout March, here Dr Andrew Thrush, editor of our Lords 1558-1603 project, looks into…
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A King’s Sister buried in a Shropshire church: Elizabeth of Lancaster, sister of Henry IV, at Burford
For Women’s History Month, Dr Simon Payling from our Commons 1461-1504 project discusses the life of Elizabeth Lancaster, the sister of Henry IV,…
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The smallest room in the House
Women have been accessing the Palace of Westminster for centuries, yet sanitary facilities have not always been provided. Chloe Challender,…
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‘Neither fish, fowl nor good red herring’: Baroness Nicholson’s experiences of hearing loss
Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, born 1941, was the MP for Torridge and West Devon 1987?97. Elected as a…
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Women in charge? Parliament’s female Housekeepers and Necessary Women, c. 1690-1877
Ahead of next Tuesday’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Mari Takayanagi, senior archivist in the UK Parliamentary…
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Identifying the Attlee Family Cars: Prime Ministers’ Props
To coincide with the third BBC Radio 4 series of Prime Ministers’ Props, our senior research fellow, Dr Martin Spychal,…