Women in the House of Lords

The first women in the House of Lords took their seats in 1958, forty years after women were granted the right to stand as MPs in the House of Commons. These women were life peers appointed by the Prime Minister. Women hereditary peers were able to sit in the Lords from 1963. Since 2015, the first female Church of England bishops have been sitting as Lords Spiritual.

Today, women make up just over a quarter of the members of the Lords, which compares with a third of the members of the Commons.

History

Women were excluded from the House of Lords until the Life Peerages Act 1958,[1] which was passed to address the declining number of active members. The Act made possible the creation of peerages for life. Women were immediately eligible and four were among the first life peers appointed, including Baroness Wootton of Abinger, who was the first woman to be appointed,[2] and Baroness Swanborough, who was the first to take her seat.[3] However, hereditary peeresses continued to be excluded until the passage of the Peerage Act 1963;[4] the first to take her seat was Baroness Strange of Knokin.[2]

The first female chief whip was Baroness Llewelyn-Davies of Hastoe in 1973.[2] Baroness Young was the first woman leader of the House of Lords in 1981.[3] Baroness Hale of Richmond became the first female Law Lord in 2004.[2]

Since the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999,[5] hereditary peeresses remain eligible for election to the Upper House. Five were elected in 1999 among the 92 hereditary peers who continued to sit. Of these, three have since died, and the other two retired in 2014 and 2020 (the Countess of Mar was the last female hereditary peer in the Lords upon retiring), and they were all replaced by male peers in by-elections[6] (except for the Countess of Mar, whose successor has not yet been elected, as of September 2020).

Following a change to the law in 2014 to allow women to be ordained bishops, the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 was passed, which provides that whenever a vacancy arises among the Lords Spiritual during the ten years following the Act coming into force, the vacancy has to be filled by a woman, if one is eligible. This does not apply to the five bishops who sit by right (one of whom is female, as of 2020).

In 2015, Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester, became the first woman to sit as a Lord Spiritual in the House of Lords due to the Act.[7] As of 2020, five women bishops sit as Lord Spirituals in the House of Lords.

Numbers

There are 222 female peers out of 798 (28%) in the House of Lords as of October 2020,[8][9] up from 199 out of 826 (24%) in 2015,[10] 176 out of 771 (23%) in 2013,[11] and 164 out of 777 (21%) in 2010.[12] Compared with the House of Commons, women make up slightly fewer of the total members of the Lords; 220 out of 650 (34%) of the members of the Commons are women as of October 2020,[13] up from 32% after the 2017 General Election.[14]

See also

References
  1. "Life Peerages Act 1958", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1958 c. 21
  2. "Membership and principal office holders". UK Parliament. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  3. "Firsts for women in Parliament". BBC. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  4. "Peerage Act 1963", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1963 c. 48
  5. "House of Lords Act 1999", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1999 c. 34
  6. "Hereditary peers: By-elections briefing" (PDF). Electoral Reform Society. July 2017.
  7. "Rachel Treweek becomes first woman bishop to enter House of Lords". Churchtimes.co.uk. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  8. "Lords by party, type of peerage and gender". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  9. "Members of the House of Lords". UK Parliament. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  10. Hughes, Dorothy (30 June 2015). "Women in the House of Lords". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. "Women in the House of Lords" (PDF). Centre for Women and Democracy. October 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  12. "Women Members of the House of Lords". Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  13. "MPs". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  14. "Election 2017: Record number of female MPs". BBC. 10 June 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.

Further reading
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