I’m the co-curator for this very splendid exhibition which is open n Parliament right now! Read the Guardian review of it and watch the BBC Parliament programme on it (on iPlayer until 25 Aug 2018) Book your free ticket now on the Parliament website – open until 6 October 2018. You can also buy the … More Voice and Vote: Women’s Place in Parliament
One always has to be careful answering the question ‘who was the first woman MP?’ as there are two answers. First there was Constance Markievicz, who was the first woman to be elected at the general election of 1918, but as a Sinn Fein MP who was in prison at the time, she never took … More Nancy Astor, first woman MP to take her seat
There was a great ‘Archive on 4’ programme on last night, the Lost World of the Suffragettes. Professor Sir Brian Harrison had the foresight to do oral history recordings in the 1970s with survivors of the women’s suffrage campaign, the tapes of which are now held at The Women’s Library. There were some very interesting reminiscences … More The Lost World of the Suffragettes
On 23 May 2011, UNESCO announced the inscription of twenty archive documents and collections to its UK Memory of the World Register. I’m delighted to say that this included an inscription for Documentary Heritage of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain, a collection of eight items held by The Women’s Library and the Parliamentary Archives. … More UNESCO recognition for women’s suffrage documents
I visited Guildhall Art Gallery last weekend and there was a temporary display there about an East London oral history community project, Working Lives of the Thames Gateway. I might have assumed such a project would be all about dockers, but there were lots of women among the video clips who had worked in all … More Working Lives on the Thames and Teesside
Parliament and Women in the early 20th century 